A federal grand jury in Maryland indicted former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton on October 16, 2025, on 18 counts tied to alleged mishandling of national defense information—eight counts for transmission and 10 for retention under the Espionage Act. Prosecutors say Bolton shared more than 1,000 pages of diary-style notes from his 2018–2019 tenure with two family members while drafting his 2020 memoir and kept classified materials at his Bethesda home and D.C. office. The indictment alleges use of a personal email account to transmit some materials.
Investigators also cite security risks from a compromise of Bolton’s personal email by actors linked to Iran, potentially exposing sensitive content, according to reporting on the case file. Bolton has denied wrongdoing, asserting the notes were unclassified and that the probe is politically motivated, while the case is being handled by career national-security prosecutors and is expected to involve complex classified-evidence procedures.
