Former Donald Trump adviser John Bolton has been indicted by a Maryland grand jury on charges of mishandling classified documents.
The one-time national security adviser to the president became a staunch critic of Trump after he left his administration in 2019. The FBI raided Bolton’s home in August, as part of a revived probe into his handling of classified info. The investigation began in the lead-up to the release of Bolton’s 2020 memoir on his time in the Trump White House, “The Room Where It Happened.” That inquiry was put on ice during the presidency of Joe Biden, only to be restarted in Trump’s second term. CNN reports that the allegations center around emails Bolton sent to his wife and daughter.
Bolton faces eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information. In a statement shared by CNN, Bolton accused Trump of “weaponizing the Justice Department.”
“Trump[‘s second term] embodies what Joseph Stalin’s head of secret police once said, ‘You show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime,’” Bolton wrote. “I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power.”
In recent weeks, the Department of Justice has brought cases against high-profile Trump opponents at a rapid clip. Indictments of New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey have raised alarm that Trump is using the courts to persecute his critics and settle personal scores.
