18-count indictment against Mr. Bolton<\/a> accused him of using personal email and a messaging app to share more than 1,000 pages of notes, which included national defense information, with two family members who did not have security clearances.<\/p>\nThose relatives were Mr. Bolton\u2019s wife and daughter, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe details of the case that were not in court filings.<\/p>\n
According to the indictment, Mr. Bolton\u2019s notes revealed that he understood that he was documenting intelligence secrets. One entry began, \u201cThe intel briefer said,\u201d while another read, \u201cWhile in the Situation Room, I learned.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first Trump administration fought unsuccessfully to prevent the publication of Mr. Bolton\u2019s book, but the criminal investigation ultimately focused not on what was in the published manuscript, but instead on what Mr. Bolton wrote in private notes and correspondence.<\/p>\n
Unlike some other investigations involving classified information, including the charges filed in 2023 against Mr. Trump, Mr. Bolton was not accused of retaining the secret documents themselves, but rather of keeping diaries and sending emails that mentioned details of his daily work in national security.<\/p>\n
Mr. Bolton\u2019s emails, however, were later hacked by someone associated with the government of Iran, the indictment said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA representative for Bolton notified the U.S. government of the hack in or about July 2021,\u201d according to the filing, \u201cbut did not tell the U.S. government that the account contained national defense information, including classified information, that Bolton had placed in the account from his time as national security adviser.\u201d<\/p>\n
One section of the indictment described Mr. Bolton apparently being taunted by his hacker. A message on July 25, 2021, warned, \u201cI do not think you would be interested in the F.B.I. being aware of the leaked content of John\u2019s email (some of which have been attached).\u201d<\/p>\n
The email went on to declare: \u201cThis could be the biggest scandal since Hillary\u2019s emails were leaked, but this time on the G.O.P. side! Contact me before it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n
A representative for Mr. Bolton forwarded the email to the F.B.I.<\/p>\n
Kelly O. Hayes, the U.S. attorney in Maryland, sat in the courtroom during the proceedings and spoke to the news media outside the courthouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one is above the law,\u201d she said, \u201cand I hope that this prosecution sends a clear message that we will vigorously investigate and prosecute individuals who violate our national security laws without fear and without favor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Bolton left the courthouse about an hour after the proceedings ended and ignored questions from reporters as he climbed into a black S.U.V.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John R. Bolton, a former top adviser to President Trump who became one of his most outspoken critics,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5378,5380,86628,1452,90403,11597,107290,14670,5379,1082,9,11,10,99548,1069,1876],"class_list":["post-279192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-bolton","tag-classified-information-and-state-secrets","tag-computer-security","tag-donald-j","tag-espionage-and-intelligence-services","tag-federal-bureau-of-investigation","tag-greenbelt-md","tag-iran","tag-john-r","tag-justice-department","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-the-room-where-it-happened-a-white-house-memoir-book","tag-trump","tag-united-states-politics-and-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}