John Bolton, the national security hawk and former adviser to Donald Trump who has become one of the US president's biggest critics, has arrived at a federal courthouse to surrender on charges of mishandling classified information.
Bolton arrived on Friday morning at the courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland to surrender. He is expected to face an initial court appearance later in the day.
Bolton, who was indicted on Thursday, is the third of Trump's prominent critics to face prosecution in recent weeks, as the US president dispenses with decades-long norms designed to insulate federal law enforcement from political pressures.
The indictment alleges that Bolton shared sensitive information with two of his relatives for possible use in a book he was writing, including notes on intelligence briefings and meetings with senior government officials and foreign leaders.
"I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose (Trump's) abuse of power," Bolton said in a statement on Thursday.
Bolton's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said Bolton did not unlawfully share or store any information.
Trump, a Republican who campaigned for the presidency on a vow of retribution after facing a slew of legal woes once his first term in the White House ended in 2021, has actively pursued his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to bring charges against his perceived adversaries.
That included pushing Bondi's Justice Department to bring charges against his perceived adversaries including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, even driving out a prosecutor he deemed to be moving too slowly in doing so.
'He's a bad guy'
The investigation of Bolton was opened in 2022, predating the Trump administration. Inside the Justice Department, the case is viewed as stronger than the prosecutions of Comey and James, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The indictment of Bolton charges him with eight counts of transmission of national defenxe information and 10 counts of retention of national defence information, all in violation of the Espionage Act.
Each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, but any sentence would be determined by a judge based on a range of factors.
In some of the chats described in the indictment, Bolton and his relatives — who are not identified — discussed using some of the material for a book. Bolton referred to the two people with whom he shared his daily notes as his "editors," the indictment said.
"Talking with [book publisher] because they have a right of first refusal!" Bolton wrote in one message, according to the indictment.
The two relatives referred to in the indictment are Bolton's wife and daughter, two people familiar with the matter said.
Bolton served as White House national security adviser during Trump's first term before emerging as one of the president's most vocal critics. Bolton, also a former US ambassador to the United Nations, described Trump as unfit to be president in a memoir he released last year.
Asked by reporters at the White House about the Bolton indictment on Thursday, Trump said: "He's a bad guy."
'Crazy' warmonger
Authorities have suggested that classified information was exposed when operatives believed to be linked to the Iranian government hacked Bolton’s email account and gained access to sensitive material he had shared.
A Bolton representative told the FBI in 2021 that his emails had been hacked, prosecutors say, but did not reveal that Bolton had shared classified information through the account or that the hackers had possession of government secrets.
In 2018, Bolton was appointed to serve as Trump's third national security adviser. His brief tenure was characterised by disputes with the president over North Korea, Iran and Ukraine.
Those rifts ultimately led to Bolton's departure.
Bolton subsequently criticised Trump's approach to foreign policy and government in his book, including by alleging that Trump directly tied providing military aid to Ukraine to that country's willingness to conduct investigations into Joe Biden, who was soon to be Trump's Democratic 2020 election rival, and members of Biden’s family.
Trump responded by slamming Bolton as a "washed-up guy" and a "crazy" warmonger who would have led the country into "World War Six."
