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Former National Security Adviser John Bolton indicted

Oct 17, 2025, 6:46am EDT
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Former National Security Advisor John Bolton
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton. Brian Snyder/File Photo/Reuters.

US prosecutors indicted a former national security adviser for allegedly mishandling classified information, the latest critic of President Donald Trump to face legal pressure.

The charges against John Bolton — who served in Trump’s first term but has turned against the president — related to his purported sharing of documents with relatives, allegations he denied. They come following prosecutions of two other Trump opponents, the New York attorney general and a former FBI director.

Yet while the legal campaign “has no parallel in decades of American politics,” as CNN put it, the Bolton charges are less surprising: Trump did not openly call for them, they were brought by long-serving officials, and a judge previously warned that Bolton may have broken the law.

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