Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton indicted

Published October 16, 2025 4:59pm ET



Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Maryland on 18 felony counts related to the mishandling and transmission of classified information, according to court filings and people familiar with the matter.

The indictment charges Bolton, 76, with eight counts of transmission of national defense information, or NDI, and 10 counts of unlawful retention of NDI. The case was brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Greenbelt, Maryland, and assigned to U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.

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