Former National Security Adviser John Bolton turned himself in to federal authorities in Maryland and pleaded not guilty after being indicted on charges of keeping top secret documents at his home and sharing classified information with family members.
He was ordered released from custody after his court appearance.
His criminal case is the third brought by the Justice Department in recent weeks against someone deemed adversarial to President Donald Trump. It also amplifies concerns that the Republican president is using the nation's top law enforcement agency to punish political foes.
Bolton didn't comment to reporters as he entered the federal courthouse in Greenbelt, about 13 miles northeast of Washington.
In a statement after a grand jury returned the 18-count indictment against him the prior day, he said he was "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."
Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton, left, departs the federal courthouse in Greenbelt, Md., following his Oct. 17 arraignment.
Who is he?
The 76-year-old Bolton is a longtime Republican who spent more than a year as national security adviser during Trump's first term.
His 17-month tenure was rife with clashes over countries including North Korea, with him voicing skepticism over Trump's outreach toward and summit with leader Kim Jong Un. On Iran, Bolton backed Trump's decision to withdraw from a nuclear deal but favored regime change and was frustrated when Trump called off a planned military strike in 2019.
The Republican president fired Bolton in 2019 and the two continued to clash in public comments long after Bolton left office.
Bolton's book, "The Room Where It Happened," was released in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election and was highly critical of Trump and his first term in the White House.
The Trump administration sued to block the book's release, claiming it disclosed classified information, but the Justice Department under President Joe Biden abandoned the lawsuit in 2021.
Bolton's Maryland home was searched in late August by federal agents.
FBI agents carry bags and boxes out of former national security adviser John Bolton's house Aug. 22 in Bethesda, Md.
Charges levied
The indictment, brought against Bolton this month, also accuses him of sharing with his wife and daughter more than 1,000 pages of notes that included sensitive national defense information he gleaned from meetings with other U.S. government officials and foreign leaders or from intelligence briefings.
Authorities say some of the information was exposed when operatives, believed to be linked to the Iranian government, hacked Bolton's email account he used to send the diary-like notes about his activities to his relatives.
"Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
The indictment cited an April news media interview in which Bolton chastised Trump administration officials for using Signal to discuss sensitive military details.
Authorities say Bolton took meticulous notes about his meetings and briefings as national security adviser and then used a personal email account and messaging platform to share information classified as high as top secret with his family members.
The indictment also says a Bolton representative told the FBI in July 2021 that his email account was hacked by operatives believed to be linked to the Iranian government but did not reveal he shared classified information through the account or that the hackers had possession of the government secrets.
Others targeted
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, was indicted this month in a mortgage fraud case. She was charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a home purchase in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020.
James sued Trump and his administration dozens of times, winning a staggering judgment last year against Trump and his companies in a lawsuit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements.
An appeals court overturned the fine, which ballooned to more than $500 million with interest, but upheld a lower court's finding that Trump committed fraud.
Former FBI Director James Comey was charged in September with lying to Congress. The charges against followed Trump appearing to publicly urge Bondi to prosecute Comey and other perceived political enemies.
Comey was involved in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, an investigation Trump claimed to be "hoax" and a "witch hunt" despite multiple government reviews showing Moscow interfered on behalf of the Republican's campaign.
Comey also was fired during Trump's first term.
