On October 16, local time, the U.S. Department of Justice said that on the same day, the U.S. federal grand jury indicted John Bolton, 76-year-old former national security assistant, accusing him of committing crimes related to mishandling confidential information. According to the indictment, Bolton was charged with 18 charges, of which 8 were illegally disseminating national defense information and 10 were illegally retaining national defense information.
FBI Director Kash Patel said that the FBI investigation showed that john bolton was suspected of using his personal online account to transmit top secret information and storing the above documents at home, which was a direct violation of federal law. The indictment accuses Bolton of using personal email and communication app accounts to illegally transmit defense information and send sensitive documents at the top secret level. These documents leak intelligence about future attacks, foreign adversaries and foreign policy relations. The indictment also alleges that Bolton illegally kept defense information files at his home. Once convicted, the penalty is up to 10 years in prison for each count of unlawful possession of national defense information and up to 10 years in prison for each count of disseminating national defense information. A federal district court judge will determine the sentence based on U.S. sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. The FBI's Baltimore field office is investigating the case.
In August this year, FBI agents discovered documents marked "confidential" in Bolton's Washington, D.C. office, covering weapons of mass destruction, national "strategic communications" and the U.S. mission to the United Nations. Bolton is under investigation on suspicion of illegally handling confidential information.
Bolton served in Trump's first administration for more than a year before being fired in 2019. After leaving Trump's first administration, he became a Trump critic. In January 2020, Bolton offered to testify in Trump's impeachment case. The Associated Press reported that the case unfolded amid broader concerns that the Justice Department was being used as a weapon against political opponents. (CCTV reporter Liu Xu)