DOJ to Seek Bolton Indictment on Espionage Act Allegations (2)

The US Justice Department is preparing to ask a grand jury to indict John Bolton, a former national security adviser to President Donald Trump who became one of his fiercest critics, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Maryland US attorney’s office is planning to seek charges Thursday against Bolton related to his handling of classified documents, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing a confidential matter. Those include charges being sought under the Espionage Act, said some of the people.

If the grand jury returns an indictment, officials have discussed a plan under which Bolton would surrender to authorities on Friday and make an initial appearance in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, according to some of the people.

Bolton has denied mishandling classified information. A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment.

Bolton would be the latest person to face criminal charges as Trump seeks to prosecute his perceived enemies.

The case follows recent indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both of whom have denied the allegations and said they will fight them in court.

However, Bolton’s case differs from the others due to the seriousness of the alleged offenses relating to the handling of national defense information. The investigation began during the Biden administration, one of the people said.

Unlike other recent criminal indictments of Trump foes, which have been brought by the president’s hand-picked interim US attorney in Virginia, a career federal prosecutor in Maryland — Thomas Sullivan — is in charge of indicting Bolton, some of the people said. Sullivan is a veteran assistant US attorney who is chief of the Maryland office’s national security section.

Bolton, who served as national security adviser during Trump’s first term, was under investigation for allegedly mishandling classified information.

Bolton had clashed with Trump’s first administration over his 2020 book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, which detailed his time in the White House and his belief that Trump was unfit for the presidency.

The administration had unsuccessfully sued to block the book’s publication, claiming it would endanger national security, but a judge ultimately refused to halt its release. The department dropped the lawsuit and a criminal investigation in 2021 under former President Joe Biden.

FBI agents searched Bolton’s home and Washington office in August. They found items marked as classified, secret and confidential during the office search, according to a court filing.

A description of the documents collected during the search of Bolton’s office indicated they contained information about weapons of mass destruction, the US mission to the United Nations and plans for government strategic communications, according to the filing.

—With assistance from Myles Miller of Bloomberg News