Overview
- Bolton surrendered in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Oct. 17 and entered a not-guilty plea as the case proceeds in federal court.
- The indictment charges eight counts of transmission and ten counts of retention, alleging he sent more than 1,000 pages of diary-style entries containing classified material to family members.
- Prosecutors say he used personal AOL and Google accounts and retained classified records at home, with August FBI searches seizing documents marked secret and confidential, including material described as about weapons of mass destruction.
- The investigation grew out of a 2021 breach of Bolton’s personal email that investigators believe was linked to Iran, with prosecutors alleging he failed to disclose that the account had been used to send classified information.
- The case is being led by career prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, and a further court date is set for Nov. 21, as Bolton and his counsel call the prosecution politically motivated.