Breaking Thursday, former National Security Advisor John Bolton has been indicted on charges related to mishandling classified information, Fox News reported. The indictment follows an FBI raid at Bolton’s Maryland residence in August, during which agents searched for documents believed to contain classified material.
The dispute over Bolton’s handling of sensitive information dates back to his 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.” During President Donald Trump’s administration, the Justice Department argued the book contained classified national security data and tried to block its release. A federal judge ultimately allowed publication to proceed.
According to government lawyers, the memoir revealed classified intelligence sources and methods, as well as details of foreign policy discussions and communications with foreign leaders.
At the time, Bolton’s attorney maintained that a senior National Security Council official had thoroughly reviewed the manuscript over four months and, after revisions, “concluded that it contained no classified information.”
John Bolton served as President Donald Trump’s White House national security advisor during his first administration, from 2018 to 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The book painted a harsh picture of the Trump administration, including claims that Trump once “pleaded” with Chinese President Xi Jinping to assist his re-election campaign.
Bolton and Trump parted ways in 2019 after the president said the two “disagreed strongly” on key policy issues. Bolton served as Trump’s national security advisor from 2018 to 2019.
In June 2021, the Biden Justice Department dropped both a criminal investigation and a civil lawsuit against Bolton related to the memoir, ending the matter — at least temporarily.
Court filings from the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland show that agents seized more than a dozen items during the raid on Bolton’s Bethesda home.
Among the seized electronics were two iPhones — one red with dual cameras and another black in a black case — along with three computers: a silver Dell XPS laptop, a Dell Precision Tower 3620, and a Dell Inspiron 2330, according to the documents.
Investigators also confiscated a Seagate hard drive and two 64-gigabyte Sandisk USB drives.
Additionally, the FBI recovered a white binder labeled “Statements and Reflections to Allied Strikes…” and folders marked “Trump I–IV,” along with four boxes of “printed daily activities.”
The August 22 raid was part of an ongoing investigation into potential mishandling of classified materials.
A source familiar with the early stages of the inquiry told Fox News Digital that CIA Director John Ratcliffe granted FBI Director Kash Patel limited access to U.S. intelligence, which formed the basis for the search warrant.
“The evidence justified the raid on Bolton’s home,” the source said, adding, “I can’t give you any more details than that, but let’s just say that John Bolton really had some nerve to attack Trump over his handling of classified information.”
According to a senior U.S. official, the initial investigation into Bolton’s alleged document retention had been shut down by the Biden administration “for political reasons” before later being revived.