Former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton, a frequent critic of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara, was charged Thursday with illegally transmitting and retaining classified information, a day after FBI agents raided his Maryland home in connection with the case, according to U.S. officials.
The 18-count indictment accuses Bolton, 76, of sending more than 1,000 pages of “diary-like entries” containing highly sensitive national security information to two individuals “related” to him while serving in the White House, and of keeping similar documents at his residence after leaving government.
The material allegedly included Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information, among the nation’s most restricted data.
The FBI search, conducted at 7 a.m. Friday, followed a grand jury’s decision to indict Bolton in Maryland after an investigation led by FBI Director Kash Patel.
The probe, paused under the Biden administration for what one U.S. official described as “political reasons,” was revived this year under President Donald Trump, who has publicly labeled Bolton a “bad guy.”
Bolton’s tenure as Trump’s national security adviser from 2018 to 2019 ended in acrimony. His 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, angered the president and prompted a Justice Department inquiry over allegations that he had published classified information without authorization.
Beyond Washington, Bolton is known in Morocco for his sharp criticism of the kingdom’s position on the Sahara. As a senior U.S. diplomat, he advocated shortening the UN peacekeeping mission MINURSO’s mandate to six months in 2018 and 2019, a move viewed as pressure on Rabat, and supported former UN envoy James Baker’s 2003 plan, which Morocco rejected as infringing on its sovereignty.
Bolton is expected to make his first court appearance Friday.
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