Former Trump Adviser John Bolton Criminally Indicted, Pleads Not Guilty

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Above: Former U.S. national security advisor John Bolton (left) exits a federal courthouse in Maryland on Oct. 17, 2025. Image copyright: Eric Lee/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-Trump narrative

Bolton's indictment exposes a grave betrayal. He illegally transmitted over 1,000 pages of top-secret documents via personal email to unauthorized relatives, risking U.S. intelligence on adversaries like Iran. This hawkish insider's recklessness, tied to his anti-Trump book, endangers lives. Accountability prevails — no one is above the law.

Trump Department of Justice

Anti-Trump narrative

Bolton's sham indictment reeks of Trump-era vengeance. The third Trump foe charged in weeks — after James Comey and Lisa James — this Espionage Act farce revives a 2022 probe dropped under Biden. Bolton, a whistleblower on Trump's abuses, faces inflated claims of "diary" sharing amid an Iranian hack. It's authoritarian payback, not justice, silencing dissent.

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