Ex-Trump advisor John Bolton indicted in classified documents case

Former White House National Security Advisor John Bolton was charged She was charged Thursday with 18 counts of improper handling of classified materials, Fox News Digital has learned.

According to the indictment, Bolton was charged with eight counts of transmitting national defense information and ten counts of retaining national defense information.

Former White House National Security Advisor John Bolton was indicted on October 16, 2025, on 18 counts of improper handling of classified materials, Fox News Digital has learned. (Jason Bergman/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

John Bolton’s home and office are raided by federal agents

“From or about April 9, 2018, until at least August 22, 2025, or about that date, Bolton abused his position as National Security Advisor by sharing more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities as National Security Advisor — including national defense-related information that had been classified to the Top Secret/SCI level — with two unauthorized persons, Individuals 1 and 2,” the indictment said. He reads. “Bolton also illegally kept documents, writings, and memos related to national defense, including information classified to the Top Secret/SCI level, at his home in Montgomery County, Maryland.”

The documents sent by Bolton were sent to two people who were not authorized to see classified documents.

According to the indictment, these documents revealed intelligence information about future attacks by a hostile group in another country. A communications partner that exchanges sensitive information with the U.S. intelligence community; Intelligence that a foreign adversary was planning to launch a missile in the future; A confidential proceeding in a foreign country relating to sensitive intergovernmental proceedings; Sensitive sources and methods used to collect human intelligence; Intelligence about the adversary’s knowledge of planned U.S. actions; Intelligence information about an adversary’s plans to launch an attack against U.S. forces in another country; Human intelligence using sensitive sources and methods; secret action programme; Intelligence collected about the leader of a military group of an enemy state; Intelligence information about adversary leaders; Intelligence relating to a foreign nation’s interactions with an adversary; Direct testimony collected through intelligence sources and methods about a foreign country; Intelligence information of a foreign nation describing an adversary’s planned attack on a facility; Sensitive sources and methods used to gather intelligence about a foreign country; Covert work, sources and methods used; Intelligence information about covert action planned by the United States government; Intelligence information confirming the responsibility of a foreign adversary for the attack; Intelligence on covert work being conducted by the United States Government, a contact partner nation, and specific information about the work.

All documents are classified as “top secret.”

As for the documents he allegedly kept, one document revealed intelligence about a future attack by a hostile group in another country; Other communications partners have been revealed to be sharing sensitive information with the US intelligence community; Another revealed intelligence that a foreign adversary was planning to launch a missile in the future; Covert action in a foreign country relating to sensitive intergovernmental business and sensitive sources and methods used to gather human intelligence.

Other documents revealed intelligence information about the adversary’s knowledge of planned American actions. Intelligence information about an adversary’s plans to launch an attack against U.S. forces in another country; Human intelligence using sensitive sources and methods; The intelligence collected about the leader of a military group of an enemy country.

Others revealed intelligence relating to a foreign country’s interactions with an adversary; Intelligence information of a foreign nation describing an adversary’s planned attack on a facility; Intelligence information confirming the responsibility of a foreign adversary for the attack; Intelligence information indicating that a foreign state is considering using specific force against another state; And more.

The documents range in classification from “secret” to “top secret.”

“The FBI investigation revealed that John Bolton transmitted highly classified information using personal online accounts and maintained said documents at his home in direct violation of federal law,” the FBI director said. Cash Battle. “The case was based on the meticulous work of dedicated FBI professionals who pursued the facts without fear or favor. The weaponization of justice will not be tolerated, and the FBI will stop at nothing to bring to justice anyone who threatens our national security.”

“There is one level of justice for all Americans,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

She added: “Anyone who exploits a position of power and puts our national security at risk will be held accountable.” “No one is above the law.”

FBI agents raided Bolton’s home in Maryland in August. This search focused on secret documents that agents believed Bolton possessed.

The list includes more than a dozen items seized from the Bethesda, Maryland, home of the president Donald Trump The former national security adviser is listed in search warrant documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

The list reveals items seized by the FBI at John Bolton’s home during the raid

Among the technology seized from Bolton’s home were two iPhones — a red one with two camera lenses and a black one in a black case — and three computers, including a silver Dell XPS laptop with cables, a Dell Precision Tower Model 3620 computer and a Dell Inspiron 2330 computer, according to warrant documents. Inspection.

John Bolton waves outside his home and posts a photo of FBI agents carrying car boxes outside Bolton’s home in August 2025. (Manuel Pals Sinita/The Associated Press)

One Seagate hard drive and two 64GB Sandisk USB drives were also seized.

The list shows that the FBI also took a white folder labeled “Data and Ideas on Allied Strikes…” and wrote the documents into folders labeled “Trump I-IV.”

According to the documents, four boxes containing what federal officials described as “printed daily activities” were also seized from Bolton’s home.

The FBI raid on August 22 was related to an investigation Due to mishandling of confidential documents.

Bolton served as National Security Advisor in the White House during his first administration, from 2018 to 2019.

A source familiar with the early stages of the investigation told Fox News Digital that CIA Director John Ratcliffe provided Patel with limited access to US intelligence that served as the basis for the search warrant. The source told Fox News Digital that evidence justified a raid on Bolton’s home.

John Bolton served as President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor in the White House during his first administration, from 2018 to 2019. (Chip Somodevila/Getty Images)

“I can’t give you any more details than that, but let’s just say that John Bolton had some nerve to attack Trump over his handling of classified information,” the source told Fox News Digital after the August raid.

The investigation into Bolton’s alleged keeping of classified documents was first launched years ago, but was later shut down by the Biden administration for “political reasons,” according to a senior US official.

Democrats opposed John Bolton for years — until they sought him as an ally against Trump

The Justice Department during the first Trump administration said Bolton’s 2020 memoir, titled “The Room Where It Happened,” contained classified material and sought to block its publication. A federal judge eventually allowed the book to be published.

Justice Department lawyers said the book contains classified national security information covering areas such as U.S. intelligence sources and methods, foreign policy deliberations and conversations with foreign leaders.

In June 2021, the Biden Justice Department fired both A.J Criminal investigation and civil litigation v. Bolton over the warrants, ending the legal battle at that time.

Bolton’s lawyer said at the time that a senior career official in charge of the NSC’s pre-publication review process conducted a four-month review of the book and, after requesting a number of reviews, concluded that it did not contain classified information.

The book contained a damning description of the Trump White House, claiming that Trump once “begged” Chinese President Xi Jinping for help with his re-election campaign, among other inaccuracies.

Trump ousted Bolton from his first administration in 2019 because the two men “strongly disagreed” on policy.

Bolton has praised and criticized Trump since leaving his first administration.

He criticized Trump’s handling of classified documents, which led to an FBI raid on the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home in 2022 and a subsequent federal indictment, but insisted that “the legal proceedings will be over.”

Bolton could be in trouble as the FBI investigation expands beyond the controversial book

Trump was initially indicted on 37 criminal counts, later expanded to 40 counts, but the case was eventually dismissed in July 2024.

In 2022, Bolton said Trump lacks the competence and character necessary to be president.

However, Bolton strongly supported Trump’s military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities in June, calling it “decisive action” and “the right thing to do” and praising its potential to bring about “tremendous change in the Middle East.”

Meanwhile, Trump has often criticized Bolton for pushing American involvement in Middle East wars. Bolton served as US Ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush from August 2005 to December 2006.

Trump He canceled Bolton’s Secret Service detail on January 21, The day after Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president, Bolton said the move showed Trump was after him.

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“I think it’s a revenge presidency,” Bolton told ABC earlier in 2025, in response to Trump’s move to revoke his security clearance.

Bolton has faced threats from Iran for years, including an alleged plot to assassinate him in 2021 and the Justice Department later charged a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with the plot in 2022.

The Justice Department reported in 2022 that Iranian threats against Bolton likely arose because of the January 2020 US strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force.

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Oliver and Keira McDonald contributed to this report.