Former Trump national security adviser indicted

John Bolton, who served as Donald Trump's national security adviser before becoming an outspoken critic of the president, has been criminally indicted on federal charges.

The Justice Department presented the case to a grand jury in Maryland on Thursday, and they agreed there was enough evidence to indict Bolton, who issued a statement maintaining his innocence.

This comes after FBI agents searched Bolton's home and office in August as part of an investigation into the handling of classified information.

The indictment makes Bolton, 76, the third political opponent of a US president to be charged in recent weeks. He could face decades in prison.

Bolton is charged with eight counts of transmitting national defense information (NDI) and 10 counts of unlawful possession of NDI, according to a 26-page indictment filed Thursday in a Greenbelt, Maryland, court.

Prosecutors accuse him of illegally transmitting top secret U.S. national defense information using personal email and other messaging apps.

“These documents reveal information about future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign policy relationships,” court documents state.

If convicted, Bolton faces up to 10 years in prison on each charge. He is expected to surrender to authorities on Friday.

“No one is above the law,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the charges.

Bolton said in a statement that he hopes to defend his “lawful conduct” in court by accusing Trump of “retaliating against me.”

“I have now become the latest target to be used by the Department of Justice as a weapon to bring charges against those he [Trump] considers them enemies because of accusations that were previously dismissed or distort the facts,” Bolton said.

Bolton's lawyer, Abbey Lowell, said the charges were based on diary entries his client kept during his 45-year career in public service.

“Like many government officials throughout history, Ambassador Bolton kept diaries—it is not a crime,” Mr. Lowell said.

He described the records as “unclassified, available only to his immediate family and known to the FBI as late as 2021.”

According to CNN, Bolton allegedly shared this information with his wife and daughter.

The unauthorized information includes “diary entries from Bolton's time as National Security Advisor” that were allegedly “printed and stored” at Bolton's home in Bethesda, Maryland.

Bolton was fired from first Trump administration in 2019. His 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” recounts his time working under Trump and portrays a president with little knowledge of geopolitics.

The White House filed a lawsuit to block publication of the book, arguing that it contained classified information and was not properly vetted. A the judge rejected the request and the book was released a few days later.

The US Department of Justice then launched an investigation into whether Bolton had misused classified information by disclosing certain information in the book.

Asked about the indictment Thursday at the White House, Trump said he didn't know about it but added that Bolton was a “bad guy.”

Bolton, who served as U.N. ambassador under George W. Bush, was among former officials critical of Trump who were stripped of Secret Service protection in January.

He is the third Trump critic to face criminal charges since September.

New York Attorney General Letitia James accused of bank fraud in October.

In late September, former FBI Director James Comey was indicted on charges of lying to Congress.

The cases came after Trump called on the US attorney general to prosecute his political opponents.

“We cannot delay any longer, this is killing our reputation and credibility,” he wrote on social networks.