OAN Staff Blake Wolf and Brooke Mallory
12:56 PM – Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton is expected to face a federal indictment after being accused of mishandling and transmitting classified government documents using his private AOL email account.
While he has not been formally charged, multiple sources suggest that a grand jury in Maryland is expected to issue an indictment soon.
The development follows FBI raids on Bolton’s Maryland home and Washington, D.C., office, where agents seized documents labeled “classified,” “confidential,” and “secret” — including materials related to weapons of mass destruction and strategic communications.
The indictment is anticipated to detail Bolton’s mishandling of classified information during his time as President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, stemming from Trump’s first administration.
Bolton allegedly used his personal AOL email account to share and store classified information through daily notes and summaries of his White House activities from 2018 to 2019.
These documents reportedly contained sensitive national security details, prompting federal authorities to raid his Bethesda, Maryland, home in August 2025 — seeking the “highly sensitive national security” information.
The indictment is expected to hit as soon as Wednesday or Thursday. One Justice Department official told the New York Post that the case against Bolton is “airtight.”
During the recent raid, FBI agents were able to remove a white binder from Bolton’s home labeled “statement and reflections to allied strikes,” which included folders labeled “Trump I-IV.” The FBI was also able to remove four boxes labeled “printed daily activities,” in addition to “two iPhones, four computers and hard drives, and two USB drives,” according to a Department of Justice filing.
The probe into Bolton’s alleged mishandling of classified documents was first introduced in 2020 through a “very specific intelligence capacity,” which exposed Bolton’s decision to allegedly transfer classified documents to his home before Trump fired him in 2019.
However, the probe was ultimately dismissed under the prior Biden administration due to “political reasons,” officials at the time stated, although it has since been reopened under FBI Director Kash Patel.
Bolton has been a vocal critic of President Trump’s foreign policy following his departure from the administration. Bolton’s tenure under Trump was also marked by significant policy disagreements, particularly regarding approaches to Iran, North Korea, and Afghanistan.
These differences led to Bolton’s dismissal in September 2019 — with Trump citing “strong disagreements” over foreign policy as the primary reason.
His conduct has also attracted bipartisan scrutiny for aggressive tactics, hawkish policies, and potential legal infractions, spanning his tenures in the Bush and Trump administrations, his published works, and current investigations.
Notably, as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control, Bolton pressured intelligence analysts to exaggerate evidence of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) to justify the U.S. invasion. He targeted analysts like Christian Westerman, who disputed the claims.
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