Before you add John Bolton‘s indictment to the growing pile of specious prosecutions of Donald Trump’s enemies,stop and read the Justice Department’s allegations that the former national security adviser systematically shared classified information with people who weren’t authorized to read it,all in the service of writing a tell-all book. The 18-count criminal indictmentfiled yesterday, was compiled by experienced prosecutors, not political lackeys. It is detailed and precise, and relies on Bolton’s own words to implicate him.You should question whether these charges would be brought if Trump weren’t president. Officials in Joe biden’s administration passed on the chance to do so. And bolton has plenty of basis to argue that he is being singled out because he is one of Trump’s most voluble and persistent critics. (He pleaded not guilty in court this morning.) But political animus doesn’t make the government’s charges baseless. This indictment does not belong in the same category as the ones against former FBI Director James Comey and New York attorney General Letitia James.Those cases are so weak that a U.S. attorney resigned rather than present them to a grand jury, and career prosecutors told his replacement that the government would probably lose at trial.
People I spoke with who are knowledgeable about the Bolton case-including what he allegedly did while serving in the White House in Trump’s first term, and internal deliberations over whether to charge him with mishandling classified information-say that indicting the former adviser was not an easy call. But the case, several said, is “righteous.” Reading the charges, I’m inclined to agree that if its facts are accurate, the government has a strong argument.I’ve covered a lot of cases of mishandling classified information and documents. Some people who have faced charges like those Bolton does now are in prison.
This indictment tells a story about a seasoned diplomat and well-known conservative firebrand who, to the surprise of many at the time, went to work for one of the most unconventional presidents in recent memory. He intended to document the experience. The day before Bolton became national security adviser,prosecutors allege,a person identified as Individual 1 set up a group chat that would be used,as Bolton put it in a text,”For Diary in the future!!!” Bolton’s excessive use of exclamation points aside,this is not in and of itself a crime. But prosecutors allege that this group chat became a primary vehicle for Bolton to share more than 1,000 pages of material that they say contained classified information with two people the indictment calls Individual 1 and Individual 2, described as relatives.News reports have identified them, respectively, as Bolton’s wife and daughter. Both appear to have been working with Bolton to compile his notes and observations.
Quinta Jurecic: The Comey indictment is an embarrassmenBut then the Trump White House ordered a second review by a political appointee, who concluded that the manuscript was full of classified information. This was a highly unusual move that Bolton contends was meant to stop his book from being published. That official, Michael Ellis, is now deputy director of the CIA. The spy agency provided the information that was the basis for a warrant to search Bolton’s home in Maryland in August, The New York Times reported.
This backstory will surely be part of Bolton’s defense that he is being unfairly, even unconstitutionally, singled out because he criticized Trump. Bolton went ahead and published his book, and prosecutors do note in their indictment that “none of the classified national defense information” mentioned in the criminal charges was contained in the memoir. The government would likely point to this fact at trial to argue that Bolton knew, or was later persuaded, that this information was classified when he shared it with his family members. The fact that they talked about the information in hushed tones (“Shhhhh.” “None of which we talk about.”) might be used by prosecutors to argue for Bolton’s consciousness of guilt.
It’s also worth emphasizing that, by Bolton’s own account in the book, he didn’t think he was obliged to submit the manuscript for a standard prepublication review. This is a controversial position for any former government official who had access to classified information, and it’s a legally risky one. But Bolton “reluctantly agreed” to the review, he wrote, “so this book could be published.”
The government later sued Bolton over the book’s publication, and the parties reached a settlement in June 2021, when Joe Biden was in office. As a condition, Bolton agreed to turn over any classified information in his possession, the indictment states.
This is where the indictment makes things look really bad for Bolton. Less than a month after the settlement, Bolton notified the FBI that he believed one of his personal email accounts had been hacked by the government of Iran. Bolton had also used this account to send diary documents to his family members, prosecutors allege. A few weeks later, in late July, a representative for Bolton forwarded the FBI an email that appears to be a blackmail threat from whomever had gained access to his account: “I do not think you would be interested in the FBI being aware of the leaked content of John’s email… This could be the biggest scandal as Hillary’s emails were leaked, but this time on the GOP side! Contact me before it’s too late…”
Bolton’s representative told the FBI that the former White House adviser was going to delete the contents of the hacked account. The anonymous writer warned Bolton that they would “disseminate the expurgated sections of your book,” which suggests that the hacker had obtained the classified material that Bolton was told, duri
According to the text, Bolton did tell the FBI that his account had been hacked, but it doesn’t explicitly state whether he told them he had used the hacked account to send the diary documents to family members.
The text does state that the intelligence community (through its own sources, not just Bolton) knew Iran had hacked his account.It also implies that the government believes the information ended up in the hands of a foreign adversary (Iran) after Bolton sent it to family.
Here’s a breakdown of what the text says:
* Hack Confirmed: The intelligence community independently verified the hack, not relying solely on Bolton’s account.
* Information compromised: The government believes the classified information bolton shared with family ultimately fell into Iranian hands.
* Bolton’s Actions: Bolton transmitted classified information to unauthorized individuals (family).