Federal prosecutors are reportedly moving toward criminal charges against John Bolton, who once served as national security adviser under Donald Trump. According to multiple reports, the Justice Department met with a grand jury in Maryland on Thursday to consider an indictment connected to Bolton’s handling of government secrets.
Investigators believe Bolton kept classified material outside of secure systems, including personal notes written through his AOL email account that described sensitive national security matters. Those entries allegedly contained details that should have remained under government protection.
This summer, FBI agents searched Bolton’s home in Bethesda, Maryland, and his Washington, D.C., office, recovering papers labeled “secret,” “confidential,” and “classified.” Court documents reveal that some of the files referenced information about weapons of mass destruction.
Bolton, now 76, has spent decades in Republican foreign policy circles. He worked under several GOP administrations and became U.N. ambassador during George W. Bush’s presidency. After clashing with Trump and leaving the White House in 2019, he published a controversial memoir about his time in office.
