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Inside the Indictment

• Federal prosecutors accuse the former National Security Advisor of sharingover a thousand pages of top-secret intelligence with two unauthorized individuals.
• Bolton allegedly kept national defense documents—including covert action reports and missile intelligence—at his Maryland home until FBI agents seized them in August 2025.
• The 18-count indictment exposes possible violations of the Espionage Act that could send Bolton to prison for life, and even make him eligible for the death penalty if national-security damage is proven.

WASHINGTONG, DC - The 26-page federal indictment unsealed in Maryland paints a damning portrait of John Robert Bolton II, the former National Security Advisor under President Donald Trump. Prosecutors allege that between April 2018 and September 2019, Bolton routinely transmitted classified national defense information to two individuals—identified only as “Individuals #1 and #2.”

Both were reportedly related to Bolton, lived in Maryland, and never held a security clearance. Investigators say Bolton sent them diary-style notes almost daily, converting his handwritten yellow-pad entries into Word documents that he emailed or messaged through AOL and Google accounts and an unnamed encrypted chat app. The indictment states that Bolton referred to the pair as his “editors” and often opened messages with the line, “[Individual #1’s initials] start here.”

“From April 9, 2018, through at least August 22, 2025, Bolton abused his position by sharing more than a thousand pages of classified information,” prosecutors wrote.

Among the seized files were documents marked TOP SECRET/SCI, NOFORN, HCS, and ORCON—the highest tiers of classification protecting intelligence sources, human assets, and covert operations.

Eight Counts of Transmission

Counts 1–8 charge Bolton under 18 U.S.C. §793(d) for willfully transmitting national defense information to unauthorized persons. Each carries up to 10 years in federal prison.

Ten Counts of Retention

Counts 9–18 charge him under 18 U.S.C. §793(e) for willful retention of classified national defense materials. FBI agents allegedly recovered hard-copy and electronic versions of the same “diary” files during an August 22, 2025 search of his Montgomery County residence.

Those files contained intelligence on missile programs, human assets, and covert U.S. operations, all of which Bolton had no authority to store after his home SCIF was decommissioned in 2019.

Each retention count also carries up to 10 years, meaning Bolton faces a maximum theoretical exposure of 180 years imprisonment—not including potential enhanced penalties if prosecutors prove his disclosures directly endangered lives or aided foreign adversaries.

Under the most severe Espionage Act provisions, if the transmission “results in the death of an agent or harm to national security,” the defendant may face life imprisonment or the death penalty.