The Justice Department is reportedly preparing to bring criminal charges against former National Security Advisor John Bolton as soon as next week, according to a report from NBC News on Friday.
Prosecutors in Maryland are said to be considering whether to present the case to a grand jury or expedite the process by filing a direct complaint in court. If they choose the latter option, formal charges could be announced within days, NBC reported.
Bolton, 76, served as national security advisor under President Donald Trump from 2018 to 2019 and has since become an outspoken critic of the former president. A longtime proponent of U.S. military intervention abroad, Bolton has frequently denounced Trump’s foreign policy decisions and publicly supported the Justice Department’s previous indictments of Trump in 2020.
MSNBC correspondent Carol Leonnig reported that acting U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes believes there is substantial evidence that former National Security Advisor John Bolton mishandled classified information.
The assessment follows FBI searches conducted at Bolton’s Maryland home and office, where agents were seen removing several boxes of materials during the August 22 raids.
According to a publicly released inventory, investigators seized three computers, two iPhones, and large quantities of documents from John Bolton’s home in Bethesda, Maryland.
The FBI has confirmed that Bolton is under criminal investigation for the possible mishandling of classified materials and could soon face charges, Reuters reported.
According to reports, the searches were conducted as part of an investigation into whether the 76-year-old former national security advisor unlawfully retained classified documents for inclusion in a book he published in 2020.
In addition to the electronic devices, agents seized two USB drives, a hard drive, four boxes of “printed daily activities,” “typed documents in folders labeled ‘Trump I – IV’” and a white binder labeled “statements and reflections to allied strikes,” according to an inventory released to the public Thursday.
The warrant confirmed that Bolton is under investigation for allegedly violating two sections of the Espionage Act of 1917, which prohibits the unauthorized removal or possession of national defense information.
Investigators have indicated that Bolton may also have violated a separate law related to the unlawful retention of classified materials.
Allegations against the former Trump adviser first emerged in 2020, when the Trump administration filed a lawsuit seeking to block the publication of his memoir, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.
The government argued that Bolton failed to complete the mandatory prepublication review process with the National Security Council, which is required for former officials releasing material that could contain classified information.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth declined to block the release of Bolton’s book, noting that it was already too late to prevent publication. However, in his ruling, Lamberth found that Bolton had “likely published classified materials” and “exposed his country to harm.”
He permitted the broader lawsuit against Bolton to proceed, though the case was later dismissed by the Biden administration in 2021.
Last month, The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence obtained information from a foreign spy service suggesting that John Bolton, while serving in the Trump administration in 2019, shared emails that may have contained classified information. According to sources familiar with the investigation, the emails were sent to several of Bolton’s associates through an unsecured server.
Although critics have frequently accused the Trump administration of politically motivated investigations, The Times reported that the current probe into Bolton gained momentum under the Biden administration.
Investigators also believe that a foreign adversary may have accessed some of the documents allegedly retained by Bolton.
