Trump critic John Bolton faces possible classified documents charges

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Oct 16, 2025

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Former national security adviser John Bolton faced possible indictment Thursday on charges related to classified documents.

There was no immediate announcement of any indictment by lunchtime Thursday and details of the charges prosecutors planned to seek from a federal grand jury in Maryland were not immediately clear.

Bolton, a prominent foreign policy hawk who has slammed President Donald Trump as unfit, was identified in court documents as the target of a federal investigation for potential mishandling of classified information.

Federal agents seized documents labeled “classified,” “confidential” and “secret” from Bolton’s office during raids in August, court filings said.

Trump Department of Justice officials have been pushing for charges against Bolton as the White House pursues a campaign of retribution against political rivals and critics.

The Espionage Act makes it a crime to remove, retain or transmit national defense records.

Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Bolton, has said the documents seized from Bolton didn’t indicate any wrongdoing and many are decades old dating from his days in the State Department and as ambassador to the United Nations.

“An objective and thorough review will show nothing inappropriate was stored or kept by (Bolton),” Lowell said.

Bolton served for 17 months as national security adviser during Trump’s first term, clashing with him over Russia, Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea before being ousted in 2019.

He later established himself as a fierce critic of Trump and penned a 2020 memoir, “The Room Where it Happened,” that portrayed his ex-boss as woefully ill-informed.

Bolton’s attorney said that many of the documents seized in August were approved as part of a prepublication review for Bolton’s book.

Bolton is the latest of Trump’s political adversaries to find themselves in the crosshairs of federal investigators since he returned to power in January.

Federal prosecutors recently indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey on charges that legal analysts say are flimsy after Trump called for them to be charged.

He’s also called for charges to be filed against Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who spearheaded the first impeachment of Trump in his first term.

Trump himself was indicted in 2023 on Espionage Act violations for allegedly stashing boxes of classified documents at his Florida resort home after losing the 2020 election and defying government demands to return them. The case was dropped after Trump won reelection in November 2024.

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