Trump's ex-NSA John Bolton indicted on charges of sharing US defence secrets: Was his email hacked by Iran?

Former national security adviser (NSA) to US President Donald Trump, John Bolton, has been charged on Thursday (Oct 16) in a case alleging he shared more than 1,000 pages classified government details with two family members. information he may have intended to use in a book. According to the charges, Bolton disclosed notes via electronic messages that included insights from high-level meetings with senior officials, talks with foreign leaders, and intelligence briefings. The indictment comes months after FBI agents raided Bolton's home in Maryland and his Washington office during the summer. The agents had reportedly found multiple documents labeled “secret”, “confidential” and “classified”, including some about weapons of mass destruction.

What Bolton's indictment states?

According to the indictment, John Bolton shared over a thousand pages of sensitive and top-secret material related to his role as national security adviser with two unauthorised individuals between April 2018 and August 2025. The indictment also states that Bolton and his family members, referred to as his “editors,” discussed the potential use of these materials in a forthcoming book. The document also reveals that after Bolton left office, a hacker linked to the Iranian government gained access to his personal email account, where some classified information was stored. While Bolton’s representative informed authorities about the hack, they reportedly failed to disclose that classified data had been kept in the email account. The indictment draws a parallel to Donald Trump’s previous Espionage Act charges, which alleged that he took classified documents to his Florida residence after leaving office in 2021 and ignored repeated government requests to return them. Trump had pleaded not guilty, and the case was dropped following his reelection in November 2024.

Bolton's response

Issuing his first response after the indictment, Bolton strongly denied any wrongdoing, stating he has dedicated 40 years to US national security and would never jeopardize it. He said that he is ready to defend his actions and expose what he called an “abuse of power.” His attorney, Abbe Lowell, maintained that Bolton did not illegally share or mishandle any classified information. He claimed the charges are politically motivated, part of Donald Trump’s ongoing vendetta against him, which began after Bolton resigned from the Trump administration and published his critical book. He accused Trump of abusing power and weaponising the Justice Department against Trump's perceived enemies. CNN quoted Bolton saying that the US president is doing “what Joseph Stalin’s head of secret police once said: ‘You show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.’"