John Bolton, who once served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, was charged on Thursday with sharing secret government information with his wife and daughter.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, Bolton sent his relatives notes from meetings with senior officials, foreign leaders, and intelligence briefings. Prosecutors say the family discussed using some of the information for a book. Bolton called his wife and daughter his “editors,” according to the indictment.
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The case was filed in federal court in Maryland and includes 18 charges — eight for transmitting and 10 for keeping national defense information, all under the Espionage Act. If found guilty, Bolton could face up to 10 years in prison for each count.
Bolton said he will fight the charges, calling them an “abuse of power.” His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said Bolton did not break any laws or mishandle classified material.
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The Justice Department said Bolton shared over a thousand pages of notes containing top-secret information between 2018 and 2025. It also revealed that Iranian hackers accessed his personal email, which contained some classified content.
President Trump, when asked about the charges, said: “He’s a bad guy.”
The investigation into Bolton began in 2022, before Trump’s return to office. It comes amid Trump’s wider push for prosecutions against several of his political critics.