If found guilty, Bolton could face up to 10 years in prison for each charge. He is expected to surrender to authorities on Friday.<\/p>\n
“No one is above the law,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the charges. <\/p>\n
Bolton said in a statement that he looked forward to defending his “lawful conduct” in court as he accused Trump of seeking “retribution against me”.<\/p>\n
“Now, I have become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those he [Trump] deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts,” Bolton said.<\/p>\n
Bolton’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the charges stemmed from diary entries kept by his client over his 45-year career in public service. <\/p>\n
“Like many public officials throughout history, Amb Bolton kept diaries \u2013 that is not a crime,” said Mr Lowell. <\/p>\n
He described the records as “unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021”.<\/p>\n
According to CNN, Bolton is alleged to have shared the information with his wife and daughter. <\/p>\n
The unauthorised information includes “diary-like entries from Bolton’s time as the National Security Advisor” and were allegedly “printed and stored” at Bolton’s home in Bethesda, Maryland.<\/p>\n