Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton delivered a damning rebuke of the charges against him after he became what he called the latest target in the president’s politically motivated crusade against his “enemies.”
An 18-count federal grand jury indictment accuses Bolton of illegally transmitting and retaining classified documents — allegations that appear to cover a period in which Bolton was collecting material for a damning tell-all book about his time in the first Trump administration.
The veteran diplomat — who also served as ambassador to the United Nations during the administration of President George W. Bush — said in a searing statement Thursday night that he has “devoted my life to America’s foreign policy and national security.”
“I would never compromise those goals. I tried to do that during my tenure in the first Trump Administration but resigned when it became impossible to do so,” he said.
He said the president launched a “retribution campaign” against him, which escalated with the publication of Bolton’s book The Room Where It Happened, and he is now “the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those he deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts,” Bolton said.
Bolton and his attorney Abbe Lowell argue that the contents of the book were cleared for publication by government officials, and over “four years of the prior administration, after these reviews, no charges were ever filed.”
“Then came Trump 2 who embodies what Joseph Stalin’s head of secret police once said, ‘You show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime,’” Bolton wrote Thursday.
“These charges are not just about his focus on me or my diaries, but his intensive effort to intimidate his opponents, to ensure that he alone determines what is said about his conduct,” Bolton added.
“Dissent and disagreement are foundational to America’s constitutional system, and vitally important to our freedom,” he said. “I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power.”
The indictment against Bolton marks the third case in as many weeks against a prominent Trump critic, after the president publicly instructed the Department of Justice and Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin politically motivated criminal prosecutions against his enemies.
“We can’t delay,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social last month.
After leaving the first Trump administration, from which the president claims Bolton was fired, the veteran diplomat published The Room Where it Happened, a scathing account of the first days of Trump’s presidency, where an “erratic” Trump emerged as a “stunningly uninformed leader,” Bolton wrote.
But unlike the indictments against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, which were brought by Trump’s former personal attorney Lindsey Halligan, the case against Bolton is being handled by Maryland U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes, who was tapped by Trump to lead the office in February.
Bolton’s home and office were raided by FBI agents this summer.
The indictment was presented to a grand jury by career prosecutor Tom Sullivan, who also signed the document.
Bolton faces eight counts of transmitting national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention.
If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison for each count, though it is unlikely a judge would issue a maximum penalty.
“There is one tier of justice for all Americans,” Bondi said in a statement Thursday. “Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”
“He’s a bad guy,” Trump said from the White House Thursday in response to a question about the indictment, moments after it was filed. “That’s the way it goes.”
