The United States Department of Justice, led by US Attorney General Pam Bondi, has sought to indict President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser-turned-one of his fiercest critics, John Bolton, over the mishandling of classified documents.
The potential indictment follows the release of court documents last month showing Bolton was under federal investigation for possible mishandling of classified information.
The exact details of the charges prosecutors plan to pursue have not been released.
According to sources cited by Bloomberg, the US attorney’s office in Greenbelt, Maryland, will pursue charges related to Bolton’s handling of classified documents.
If John Bolton is indicted, it would be the third time in recent weeks that the Justice Department has secured criminal charges against one of the Republican president’s critics.
Bolton’s possible indictment is being handled by Thomas Sullivan, a career federal prosecutor in Maryland. Sullivan is a veteran assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the national security section of the Maryland office.
John Bolton has denied the allegations.
The case represents an escalation of Trump’s retaliation campaign against some of his fiercest critics and follows recent indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), who both denied the charges and said they would fight them in court.
John Bolton served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during Trump’s first term as well as the White House national security adviser before becoming one of the president’s most vocal critics. In a memoir he released last year, he described Trump as unfit to be president.
The allegations against John Bolton that led to his indictment came shortly after the Justice Department indicted former FBI Director James Comey. He is charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.
James Comey investigated Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, while New York Attorney General Letitia James previously filed a real estate lawsuit against Trump and his family.
Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017, has pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements to Congress and obstruction of Congress.
