Former National Security Advisor John Bolton was indicted Thursday on charges of mishandling classified information, a stunning development that could see the outspoken critic of President Donald Trump spend a decade in jail.
A federal grand jury in Maryland accused Bolton of sending national security documents through his personal AOL account.
Trump was holding court in the Oval Office when news of the indictment broke.
‘I didn’t know that, you’re telling me for the first time, but I think he’s a bad person,’ Trump reacted. ‘I think he’s a bad guy, yeah, he’s a bad guy. Too bad, but that’s the way it goes.’
The president said he hadn’t reviewed the case against Bolton in advance.
The indictment comes two months after FBI agents raided Bolton’s Washington, D.C. office and suburban Maryland home.
The FBI was looking for possible violations of the Espionage Act, a law that dates back to 1917 and makes unauthorized possession of national security documents illegal.
At Bolton’s D.C. office, federal agents discovered documents marked ‘confidential’ that referenced weapons of mass destruction, according to unsealed court records.
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton is expected to be indicted. After serving in President Donald Trump’s first term, he became a staunch critic of the president
FBI agents remove boxes from the Washington, D.C. office of former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton on August 22
At his Maryland home, agents seized two cell phones, documents in folders labeled ‘Trump I-IV’ and a binder labeled ‘statements and reflections to Allied Strikes,’ the court records also showed.
Court records also said a foreign entity had hacked Bolton’s email account, but the details were redacted.
Bolton was tapped as Trump’s third national security adviser during his first term after previously serving as President George W. Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations.
After leaving the Trump White House, Bolton became a prominent critic of the president, calling the former real estate developer ‘stunningly uninformed’ in his memoir, which the Trump administration had tried to block.
Trump indicated early on in his second term that Bolton would be a top target in his vengeance campaign.
Just a day after his swearing-in, Trump had Bolton’s Secret Service detail pulled.
Bolton – and Trump – had been under assassination threat from Iran due to their roles in the January 2020 American drone strike that killed Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.
The next day, Trump pulled Bolton’s security clearance.
Bolton waves to the press on the day his house was raided by FBI agents.
During the raids of Bolton’s office and home, Trump said he didn’t know about it in advance.
‘I saw it on television this morning,’ Trump said. ‘I’m not a fan of John Bolton. He’s a real, sort of a low-life,’ the president also commented.
But in an accidental Truth Social post last month, the president appeared to be pushing Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political enemies – naming former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff.
Days later, Comey was indicted by a federal grand jury over charges related to making false statements to Congress.
Trump fired Comey in 2017 amid the Russia probe, which the president has labeled a ‘hoax.’
Last week, James was indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia on one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution.
James had previously brought fraud charges against the president and his company.
A spokesperson for Bolton’s attorney Abbe Lowell did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
