October 16, 2025 – Former NSA John Bolton is indicted by grand jury for mishandling classified documents

In Email/Dossier/Govt Corruption Investigations, Featured Timeline Entries by Katie Weddington

The Justice Department presented evidence to a federal grand jury in Maryland against former National Security Adviser John Bolton for allegedly transmitting highly classified materials through his private AOL email account during his 2018–2019 tenure.

The investigation centers on documents labeled Secret and Confidential related to weapons of mass destruction, as well as personal notes resembling a diary that may contain additional classified details.

Prosecutors argued that Bolton willfully removed, retained, or transmitted national defense information in violation of sections of the Espionage Act of 1917.

(…) On August 22, 2025, FBI agents executed court-authorized searches of Bolton’s Maryland home and his Washington, D.C. office as part of a federal investigation into possible improper retention, transmission, or loss of classified information.

According to unsealed court documents, agents seized multiple devices, computers, tablets, iPads, flash drives, and cellphones, along with boxes of documents labeled “Trump I-IV” and a binder titled “statements and reflections to Allied Strikes.”

New documents released revealed that John Bolton stored classified information about WMDs and the United Nations.

“Categories of potentially classified records that the FBI reported finding at Bolton’s office included: travel memo documents with a “secret” label; confidential documents from the U.S. mission to the U.N.; confidential documents related to strategic communications; and classified documents related to weapons of mass destruction,” Politico reported.

The search warrant affidavit (partially redacted) references potential violations of the Espionage Act and statutes governing unauthorized transmission or retention of national defense information.

Read the affidavit here or below:

(Read more: Gateway Pundit, 10/16/2025)  (Archive)

UPDATE:

(…) John Bolton transmitted classified emails over a private server system and they were intercepted by Iran, according to the indictment.

According to the 26-page indictment, Bolton shared the classified documents with two unnamed relatives. While the indictment did not name the relatives, a previous leak to The New York Post revealed that Bolton shared the documents with his wife and daughter.

“From on or about April 9, 2018, through at least on or about August 22, 2025, BOLTON abused his position as National Security Advisor by sharing more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities as the National Security Advisor-including information relating to the national defense which was classified up to the TOP SECRET/SCI level-with two unauthorized individuals, namely Individuals 1 and 2,” the indictment read.

BOLTON also unlawfully retained documents, writings, and notes relating to the national defense, including information classified up to the TOP SECRET/SCI level, in his home in Montgomery County, Maryland,” prosecutors said according to the indictment reviewed by The Gateway Pundit.

John Bolton’s potential indictment under the Espionage Act is a long-overdue reckoning. The FBI’s August search uncovered classified docs referencing WMDs—critical national security material. Bolton’s claim that these were “ordinary” for a former official? Laughable.

If a Trump ally mishandled intel, the media would demand life in prison. But Bolton, a career swamp creature who trashed Trump while cozying up to globalist agendas, gets kid-glove treatment.

Prosecuting him isn’t political—it’s enforcing the law equally. The Espionage Act exists to punish betrayal, not protect D.C. insiders. Lock him up.

UPDATE – 10/17/2025:

John Bolton, President Trump’s former National Security Advisor (NSA), has been indicted by a grand jury for the District of Maryland. Here is the indictment.

In total, Bolton faces 18 felony counts: 8 counts of transmission of national defense information (18 USC § 793(d)) and 10 counts of retention of national defense information (18 USC § 793(e)) – charges that fall under the Espionage Act.

(…)  The indictment doesn’t fill all the holes of this story – we suspect that the FBI’s investigation into Bolton’s possession of classified documents started at this point. The FBI would have vigorously investigated the hack by a foreign state (especially one by Iran against a former high-level government official) and, at some point, would have learned of the contents of Bolton’s email account. Or of what the hacker possessed/extracted. Perhaps both.

John, Gretchen and Jennifer Bolton (Credit: public domain)

Curiously, the FBI chose not to pursue that investigation. At least not until August 2025, when the FBI executed search warrants of Bolton’s home in Maryland and his office in Washington, DC, where the FBI seized materials showing: (1) Bolton transmitted his diaries containing classified information to his wife/daughter; and (2) printed copies of versions of those diary entries with classified information.

These facts are important because they relate to a settlement made between the Government and Bolton concerning Bolton’s memoir, which the Government concluded contained excessive amounts of highly classified information that needed to be removed. As part of that settlement, Bolton agreed to “provide to the United States all materials in his possession, custody, or control that may contain any classified information.” He also agreed to return classified materials contained in drafts, whether in physical or electronic form.

With respect to the counts themselves, Bolton revealed the following highly classified information in the notes/documents sent to his wife and daughter (this is just part of what Bolton revealed, the indictment summarizes in much more detail):

  • Intelligence about a future attack by an adversarial group in another country.
  • Intelligence that a foreign adversary was planning a future missile launch.
  • Information about covert action in a foreign country.
  • Intelligence collected on the leader of an adversary’s military leader.
  • Intelligence concerning an adversary’s knowledge of a planned US action and an adversary’s plan for attack against the US.
  • Intelligence on covert action planned by the US (multiple documents had this information).

(Read more: TechnoFog/Substack, 10/17/2025)  (Archive)

UPDATE 10/18/2025