John Bolton, who served as Donald Trump's national security adviser before becoming a vocal critic of the president, has been criminally indicted on federal charges.
The Department of Justice presented a case to a grand jury in Maryland on Thursday, and they agreed there was enough evidence to indict Bolton, who issued a statement maintaining his innocence.
It comes after FBI agents searched Bolton's home and office in August as part of an investigation into the handling of classified information.
The indictment makes Bolton, 76, the third of the US president's political opponents to face charges in recent weeks. He could face decades in prison.
According to a 26-page indictment filed at a court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Thursday, Bolton is charged with eight counts of transmission of national defense information (NDI) and 10 counts of unlawful retention of NDI.
Prosecutors accuse him of illegally transmitting top secret information about US national defense using his personal email and other messaging apps.
These documents revealed intelligence about future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign-policy relations, the court papers state.
If found guilty, Bolton could face up to 10 years in prison for each charge. He is expected to surrender to authorities on Friday.
No one is above the law, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the charges.
Bolton said in a statement that he looked forward to defending his lawful conduct in court as he accused Trump of seeking retribution against me.
Now, I have become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those he [Trump] deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts, Bolton said.
Bolton's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, stated the charges were based on diary entries kept by Bolton during his 45-year career in public service and emphasized that maintaining such records is not a crime. The documents are said to be unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI since 2021. Bolton was fired from Trump's administration in 2019, and his memoir depicted Trump unfavorably.
Bolton has criticized the political motivations behind the indictment, claiming it follows a trend of prosecuting Trump’s adversaries and emphasizing his intent to fight the charges in court.
