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What to know about the indictment of John Bolton

Bolton faces 18 counts related to mishandling classified information, including sharing top secret data with unauthorized family members, following a 2022 investigation after his emails were hacked.

  • On Thursday, a federal grand jury in Maryland indicted John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, on eight counts of transmission and 10 counts of retention of national defense information; he surrendered Friday at the federal court in Greenbelt.
  • The probe began after a 2021 email hack, and the criminal investigation started in 2022 after Bolton’s emails were hacked by Iran, following a closed 2020 memoir review in 2021.
  • Prosecutors allege Bolton kept digital diary-like entries with TOP SECRET material, shared with family members and in a group chat titled 'For Diary in the future!!!', using personal email accounts.
  • Bolton called the indictment politically motivated and vowed to fight, while President Donald Trump called him 'a bad guy' at the White House as career prosecutors support the case.
  • Prosecutors aim to insulate the case from politics, saying FBI investigators focus on TOP SECRET transmissions, while analysts warn of 'big, big trouble' and no hearing is scheduled under U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang.
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What to know about the indictment of John Bolton

John Bolton, Trump’s ex-national security adviser, faces federal charges for mishandling classified information

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Al Jazeera broke the news in Qatar on Friday, October 17, 2025.
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