Greenbelt (US)- John Bolton, who served as national security adviser to US President Donald Trump during his first term and later became a vocal critic of the Republican leader, was charged on Thursday with storing top secret records at home and sharing with relatives diary-like notes about his time in government that contained classified information.

The 18-count indictment also suggests classified information was exposed when operatives believed to be linked to the Iranian regime hacked Bolton's email account and gained access to sensitive material he had shared. A Bolton representative told the FBI in 2021 that his emails had been hacked, prosecutors say, but did not reveal he had shared classified information through the account or that the hackers now had possession of government secrets.

The indictment sets the stage for a closely-watched court case centring on a longtime fixture in Republican foreign policy circles who became known for his hawkish views on American power and who served for more than a year in Trump's first administration before being fired in 2019 and publishing a scathingly-critical book about the president.

The case, the third against a Trump adversary in the last month, will also unfold against the backdrop of concerns that the Justice Department is pursuing the president's political enemies while at the same time, sparing his allies from scrutiny. Bolton foreshadowed that argument in a defiant statement on Thursday in which he denied the charges and called them part of an“intensive effort” by Trump to“intimidate his opponents”.

“Now, I have become the latest target in weaponising the Justice Department to charge those he deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts,” he said.

Even so, the indictment is significantly more detailed in its allegations than earlier cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Unlike the other two cases filed over the last month by a hastily-appointed US attorney, this one was signed by career national security prosecutors. And though the investigation burst into public view in August when the FBI searched Bolton's home in Maryland and his office in Washington, the inquiry was already well underway by the time Trump took office a second time this past January.

Sharing of classified secrets

The indictment, filed in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, alleges that between 2018 and this past August, Bolton shared with two relatives more than 1,000 pages of information about his day-to-day activities in government.

The material included“diary-like” entries with information classified as high as top secret that he had learned from meetings with other US government officials, from intelligence briefings or talks with foreign leaders, according to the indictment. After sending one document, Bolton wrote in a message to his relatives,“None of which we talk about!!!” In response, one of his relatives wrote,“Shhhhh,” prosecutors said.

The indictment says that among the material shared was information about foreign adversaries that in some cases revealed details about sources and methods used by the government to collect intelligence. One document related to a foreign adversary's plans for a missile launch, while another detailed US government plans for covert action and included intelligence blaming an adversary for an attack, court papers say.

The two family members were not identified in court papers, but a person familiar with the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss non-public details, identified them as Bolton's wife and daughter.

“There is one tier of justice for all Americans,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.“Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardises our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”

The indictment also suggests Bolton was aware of the impropriety of sharing classified information with people not authorised to receive it, citing an April news media interview in which he chastised Trump administration officials for using Signal to discuss sensitive military details. Though the anecdote is meant by prosecutors to show Bolton understood proper protocol for government secrets, Bolton's legal team may also point to it to argue a double standard in enforcement since the Justice Department is not known to have opened any investigation into the Signal episode.

Bolton's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that the“underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years ago”.

He said the charges stem from portions of Bolton's personal diaries over his 45-year career in government and included unclassified information that was shared only with his immediate family and was known to the FBI as far back as 2021.

“Like many public officials throughout history, Amb. Bolton kept diaries - that is not a crime. We look forward to proving once again that Amb. Bolton did not unlawfully share or store any information,” Lowell said.

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