A large jury in a federal district court in Maryland decided on Friday to file a lawsuit against John Bolton, who served as President¡¯s National Security Assistant during Trump¡¯s first term, on charges of illegal storage and transmission of classified information.

The indictment contains 18 charges, accusing Bolton of ¡°abusing¡± the office of President¡¯s National Security Assistant, sharing more than 1,000 pages of information about his ¡°day-to-day work activities¡± with those who are related to him and have no right to view such information.

Bolton issued a statement on the same day, denying any misconduct, while accusing "(Trump) of using the Justice Department to accuse those he believes to be enemies." Bolton's lawyer, Abbe Loir, also issued a statement saying that the "fundamental facts of the case have been investigated and resolved many years ago," and Bolton's diary "is not secret, shared only with his direct relatives, known by the FBI as early as 2021."

In August this year, the FBI searched Bolton's home and office. According to previously unpublished court documents, the FBI seized several documents labeled "confidential" "secret" from Bolton's office. Loire said that many documents had been reviewed before Bolton's memoirs were published, many of which have been decades old.

Bolton was fired in September 2019 after just over a year as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In his memoirs published in 2020, he criticized Trump's foreign policy and government policies. Trump has accused the book of containing "highly confidential information" and Bolton "did not obtain approval" for publication. The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into Bolton in this regard.

Bolton re-published the book in early 2024, in which he described Trump as "unsuitable to be president."When Trump re-entered the White House in January this year, he immediately ordered that Bolton be deprived of security treatment and revoked Bolton's covert license on the grounds that Bolton leaked "sensitive information obtained during his administration."

Journalist: The Bear