Bolton Turns Himself In, Pleads Not Guilty In Espionage Case Over Classified Documents

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton surrendered to authorities on Friday morning for his arraignment and pleaded not guilty to the 18 federal charges he faces related to his handling of classified documents.

Bolton made his first court appearance in Greenbelt, Maryland, before Judge Timothy Sullivan. After pleading not guilty, Bolton is set to be released and is not required to post bail. He is due back in court on November 21, CNN reported. Bolton is allowed to travel domestically, but he will be required to hand over his passport and travel documents to his lawyer. If he wants to travel internationally, he will have to seek approval from the court.

While Judge Sullivan oversaw Bolton’s federal arraignment on Friday, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang — an Obama appointee — has been assigned the case going forward, CNN reported.

John Bolton surrenders himself in federal court.

What a great day for America. pic.twitter.com/jDtztl7wT6

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Bolton, who advised President Donald Trump during his first term, was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday and is accused of sending classified information to unauthorized recipients through his personal email, violating provisions in the Espionage Act. In August, the FBI raided the former national security adviser’s home in Maryland, taking troves of documents, three computers, and two iPhones amid the Justice Department’s investigation into his handling of classified material.

President Trump said on Thursday that he was not aware that Bolton had been indicted, but added, “I think he’s a bad person.”

“It’s too bad, but that’s the way it goes,” Trump told reporters.

In a statement on Thursday, Bolton said that he was being targeted in a political prosecution.

“For four decades, I have 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,” said Bolton.

“Now, I have become 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,” he added.

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In 2023, Trump was also charged with crimes related to his handling of classified documents after leaving office. That case was dismissed a year later after Trump-nominated District Court Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith violated the Constitution.

Bolton is accused of sending “diary-like entries” to two people “that contained information classified” as “TOP SECRET.” The two people to whom Bolton allegedly sent the classified information were his wife and daughter, CNN reported.

“BOLTON wrote many of these diary-like entries by transcribing his handwritten notes from his day’s activities into word processing documents, which he then electronically sent to Individuals 1 and 2 through a commercial non-governmental messaging application,” the indictment reads.

“On other occasions, BOLTON used his personal non-governmental email accounts, such as email accounts hosted by AOL and Google, to email information classified up to the TOP SECRET/SCI level to Individuals 1 and/or 2 at their personal email accounts,” the indictment adds. “At no point did BOLTON have authorization to store or transmit the classified information that he sent to Individuals 1 and 2 via his personal electronic devices and accounts. Nor did, at any time, Individuals 1 or 2 have authorization to know or store the classified information that BOLTON gave to them.”

The investigation into Bolton’s handling of classified documents gained momentum under the Biden administration and continued after President Trump took office for a second time in January, The New York Times reported.

After serving under Trump from 2018 to 2019, Bolton became a harsh critic of the president and authored a book on his experience less than a year after Trump said he fired Bolton as National Security Adviser. Trump said that he terminated Bolton, but Bolton has insisted that he resigned from his position.

The book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” was promoted as “the most comprehensive and substantial account of the Trump Administration.” The Trump administration argued that Bolton’s book endangered national security. After a back-and-forth, Bolton removed classified information from his book manuscript before he published it, according to court records.