GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — john bolton President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser turned critic pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he emailed classified information to his family and kept top secret documents in his Maryland home.
Mr Bolton was ordered released after appearing before a judge in court. This is the third lawsuit filed by the Justice Department in recent weeks against President Donald Trump’s opponents..
The lawsuit, which accuses Bolton of endangering national security, says the Trump administration used the Justice Department’s law enforcement powers to track down his political opponents. Bolton said he was being targeted because of his criticism of the president, and described the accusations as part of Trump’s “efforts to intimidate his opponents.”
But the investigation into Bolton was already well underway when Trump took office for the second time in January, and appears to have taken a more traditional path to prosecution than other recent cases against Trump foes, prosecuted by the president’s hand-picked U.S. attorney in Virginia over concerns about career prosecutors.
Mr. Bolton is accused of sharing with his wife and daughter more than 1,000 pages of memos containing classified information gleaned from meetings with other U.S. government officials, foreign leaders, and intelligence briefings. Some of the information was leaked when agents believed to be connected to the Iranian government hacked Bolton’s email account, which he used to send diary-like notes about his activities to relatives, authorities said.
The Justice Department also alleges that Mr. Bolton keeps highly classified information in his home about foreign enemy plans to attack U.S. forces overseas, covert actions taken by the U.S. government, and other state secrets.
“Every American deserves a measure of justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement Thursday. “Anyone who abuses their position of power and endangers the security of our country will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”
Bolton, 76, has long been a fixture in Republican foreign policy circles and is known for his hawkish views on American power, having served for more than a year in Trump’s first administration before taking office. He was fired in 2019. He later published a book highly critical of Trump.
FBI agents carry boxes from former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s office in Washington, D.C., Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr., File)
The indictment lays out the charges in much more detail than previous cases against former defendants. FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Unlike those cases, which were brought by hastily appointed U.S. attorneys, Mr. Bolton’s indictment was signed by a career national security prosecutor.
The incident centered on top secret national security information.
Bolton suggested the criminal case was the result of a failed Justice Department effort after he left government. Block the publication of his 2020 book, The Room Where It Happened. It portrayed President Trump as grossly misinformed about foreign policy.
Mr. Bolton’s lawyers said he moved forward with the manuscript after a White House National Security Council official, with whom he had worked for several months, said the manuscript no longer contained classified information.
Authorities say Mr. Bolton took meticulous notes on meetings and press conferences as national security adviser and used his personal email accounts and messaging platforms to share information classified as top secret with his family. After sending one document, Bolton wrote to relatives: “We’re not talking about any of it!!!” In response, one of his relatives wrote, “Shhh,” prosecutors said.
The two family members are not identified in court documents, but they are Bolton’s wife and daughter, said a person familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private details.
According to the indictment, Bolton’s representatives told the FBI in July 2021 that his email account was hacked by operatives believed to be affiliated with the Iranian government, but did not say that he had shared classified information through the account or that the hackers had obtained government secrets.
“The underlying facts of this case were investigated and resolved several years ago,” Bolton’s attorney Abby Rowell said in a statement.
John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during President Donald Trump’s first term, departs from his home in Bethesda, Maryland, on Friday, October 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Seneta)
He said the charges stem from portions of Bolton’s personal diary spanning his 45-year government career, which contained unclassified information shared only with his immediate family and known to the FBI dating back to 2021.
“Like many public servants throughout history, Mr. Bolton kept a diary. That’s not a crime,” Lowell said. He said Bolton “did not unlawfully share or store any information.”
The Justice Department has a long history of classified documents cases.
The Justice Department has a long history of investigations into the mishandling of classified information involving public officials. The outcome of these investigations will depend in part on whether authorities have evidence of other crimes, such as intentional mishandling or obstruction.
For example, Mr. Trump He was charged with more than just storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago mansion. But it also thwarted government efforts to take it back. Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped the case after President Trump He was elected last November because of the Justice Department’s policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Prosecutors discovered the following evidence in a separate investigation: President Joe Biden knowingly kept and shared classified information while a civilian However, he decided against indicting Biden in part because he feared that the jury might see him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning old man with a poor memory.”
Another investigation attracting attention Concerns about 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary ClintonShe was spared charges because then-FBI Director James Comey said investigators did not determine she intended to break the law when she sent emails containing classified information to a private email server while she was secretary of state.
One investigation that may have similarities to the Bolton case is Former CIA Director David Petraeus indictedshe admitted in 2015 that her biographer shared confidential information while writing the book. He was sentenced to probation under a plea agreement with the Department of Justice.
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Durkin Richer reported from Washington.
