OAN Staff Blake Wolf
11:05 AM – Friday, October 17, 2025
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton has pleaded not guilty to his 18 criminal charges related to the mishandling of classified information.
On Friday, Bolton pleaded not guilty during a federal court appearance in Greenbelt, Maryland, just a day after a federal grand jury indicted him on charges of illegally transmitting and retaining classified information — while serving as an advisor to President Donald Trump during his first administration.
In total, Bolton has been indicted on 18 counts of transmission of national defense information, along with ten counts of retention of national defense information.
President Trump fired Bolton in September 2019 after major disagreements on foreign policy, among other issues. Bolton is infamously known as a neoconservative war hawk, as Trump previously explained, “If it was up to him [Bolton], he’d take on the whole world at one time.”
The 18-count indictment accused Bolton of transmitting “diary-like entries” containing classified material with relatives through his personal AOL email and messaging apps, in addition to illegally retaining physical and digital copies of classified information pertaining to national defense matters at his Maryland home.
After allegedly sending a highly classified document to one of his family members, Bolton wrote, “None of which we talk about!!!”
The indictment states that “from on or about April 9, 2018, through at least on or about August 22, 2025, BOLTON abused his position as National Security Advisor by sharing more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities as the National Security Advisor – including information relating to the national defense which was classified up to the TOP SECRET/SCI levl – with two unauthorized individuals.”
“BOLTON also unlawfully retained documents, writings, and notes relating to the national defense, including information classified up to the TOP SECRET/SCI level, in his home in Montgomery County, Maryland.”
Authorities also claim that some of the information Bolton retained was exposed to the Iranian government after Iranian-linked hackers were able to gain access to his email account.
Meanwhile, Bolton’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, has since argued that the “underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years ago.”
“Like many public officials throughout history,” Lowell continued. “Bolton kept diaries – that is not a crime.” Lowell added that Bolton “did not unlawfully share or store any information.”
Bolton has argued that the indictment against him represents “the latest target” of President Trump’s “retribution campaign” stemming from his 2020 book “The Room Where It Happened,” which bitterly attempted to portray Trump as extremely “misinformed” and foolish in regard to foreign policy.
Despite his claims, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that the bureau investigated the case and found that Bolton did in fact transmit “top secret information using personal online accounts and retained said documents in his house in direct violation of federal law.”
“The case was based on meticulous work from dedicated career professionals at the FBI who followed the facts without fear or favor. Weaponization of justice will not be tolerated, and this FBI will stop at nothing to bring to justice anyone who threatens our national security,” Patel added.
At the Friday court hearing, Bolton expressed that he has reviewed the indictment details with his legal team and has agreed to surrender his passport. Bolton’s next court appearance is scheduled for November 21st.
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