Bolton says indictment shows he's 'target' of weaponized DOJ, surrendering Friday morning

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton says the 18-count grand jury indictment against him Thursday for allegedly unlawfully handling classified documents shows he's being targeted by a weaponized Justice Department.

Bolton has been charged with 18 felonies, including 10 counts of illegal retention of national defense information, when he was the White House national security adviser in President Trump's first term.  He was also charged with eight counts of transmitting national defense information.

He arrived at a Maryland courthouse Friday apparently to surrender and plead not guilty to the charges.

“I have become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those [Trump] deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts,” Bolton said in a statement.

The DOJ sued Bolton in 2020 over his memoir, "The Room Where it Happened," alleging he breached his contract by failing to conduct a pre-publication check for classified information. Eventually, the department opened a criminal investigation into whether Bolton had disclosed such information in the memoir.

The Biden DOJ closed that investigation in 2021. "This is a complete vindication," Bolton told Axios at the time. "They're just giving up."

The federal judge in that case allowed Bolton to move forward with publishing the book, but ruled that he "likely published classified materials" and "exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability." 

Bolton in his response to the grand jury indictment also referenced the Trump administration’s prior attempts to prevent the book from being published. He said the book was “reviewed and approved by the appropriate, experienced career clearance officials.”

According to the indictment, in July 2021, a representative for Bolton allegedly alerted the FBI that one of his personal accounts had been hacked by Iran. However, the representative did not say that the hackers had obtained access to government secrets or that Bolton shared classified information via the account.

Bolton said  the FBI was “made fully aware” of the hack, noting that “in four years of the prior administration, after these reviews, no charges were ever filed.”

“These charges are not just about [Trump’s] 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 said. “Dissent and disagreement are foundational to America’s constitutional system, and vitally important to our freedom.

“I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power.”

If convicted, Bolton faces up to 10 years in prison for each charge.