John Bolton pleads not guilty in classified documents case
John Bolton, a former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he mishandled classified materials.
He was released from federal custody after his initial appearance before Magistrate Judge Timothy Sullivan at a Maryland courthouse and told that, pending trial, he could travel within the country, though he must seek court approval before traveling abroad.
The judge did not set a trial date.
A grand jury seated in Greenbelt, Maryland, indicted Bolton on Thursday afternoon on 18 counts of transmitting or retaining national defense information. The charges each carry a maximum 10-year prison sentence should he be convicted.
Federal prosecutors accuse Bolton of sharing more than a thousand pages of “diarylike” updates detailing his sensitive work between 2018 and 2019 with two relatives — who are unnamed in the indictment — assisting him in preparing a book he published in 2020.
He allegedly sent those messages through a personal email account which was later hacked by someone U.S. authorities believe was linked to the Iranian government, according to authorities.
Bolton has publicly denied any wrongdoing.
His attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement Thursday that the allegations at the heart of the case “were investigated and resolved years ago.”
Bolton in a statement maintained that he would never compromise America’s foreign policy or national security.
“These charges are not just about [Trump’s] focus on me or my diaries, but his intensive effort to intimidate his opponents,” Bolton said. “Dissent and disagreement are foundational to America’s constitutional system, and vitally important to our freedom. I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power.”
Asked about the charges, Trump said at a White House event Thursday afternoon that his former national security officer was a “bad guy.”
Bolton served in the first Trump administration and has since become an outspoken critic of the president in frequent media appearances. Trump, in turn, has derided Bolton as “crazy” and “washed-up.”
The indictment against Bolton stems from a Biden-era investigation, and legal experts say that the case against him appears to be substantial. It was signed by Kelly O. Hayes, a respected veteran prosecutor named in February to lead the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland. Tom Sullivan, a career prosecutor who heads the office’s national security division, was among the prosecutors who presented the case to the grand jury and also signed the document.
Bolton’s initial court appearance is the first step in what could be a lengthy process before the case reaches trial. Cases involving classified documents can take an especially long time to go to trial because the law governing what classified materials are allowed to be used in court — the Classified Information Procedures Act — is particularly time-consuming and cumbersome.