John Bolton, who was US President Donald Trump’s national security advisor during his first term, was accused on Thursday of keeping confidential government documents in his home and sharing confidential details related to government work with his family members.
The 18-charge indictment against Bolton also states that hackers linked to Iran accessed confidential information by hacking Bolton’s email account. Bolton had informed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2021 that his emails had been hacked but he did not disclose whether he had shared confidential information from the account which now fell into the hands of hackers.
Bolton had informed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2021 that his emails had been hacked but he did not disclose whether he had shared confidential information from the account which now fell into the hands of hackers. The case focuses on Bolton, one of the Republican Party’s foreign policy experts, who is known for his hard-line foreign policy and pro-war stance. He stayed with Trump for more than a year during his first term but was dismissed in 2019.
John Bolton has also published a book strongly criticizing Trump. This is the third case registered against a critic of Trump in the last one month. Bolton denied the allegations and called them “an attempt by Trump to intimidate his opponents.” “I have now become the latest victim of the political machinations of the Justice Department,” he said.
John Bolton is accused of sharing more than 1,000 pages of information about government activities with relatives, indictment says. https://t.co/zWe86abqzR
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 16, 2025