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A federal grand jury met Wednesday afternoon to consider Criminal charges against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, According to a report by New York Post,
Justice Department officials told Post They are expecting Bolton’s arraignment on Wednesday or Thursday. An official also told the outlet He believes the case against Bolton is “well-founded”.
comes after this FBI raids Bolton’s home in Bethesda, MarylandIn August in an effort to locate classified records. According to court documents, agents also searched his Washington, D.C. office and said they seized records bearing classification markings, including documents referencing weapons of mass destruction and strategic government communications.
The Maryland grand jury has reportedly been hearing evidence for several weeks related to claims that Bolton mishandled classified information.
Bolton’s lawyer Abbey Lovell has maintained that his client is innocent. Lowell told politico The records collected by the FBI last month were decades old, and some were even cleared for use in Bolton’s book. Lowell described them as “ordinary records”, which were expected to be kept by a 40-year career officer who had served in a number of high-level roles.
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“Specifically, the documents bearing classification markings date from the 1998-2006 period of Ambassador Bolton’s time in the George W. Bush administration,” Lovell said. “An objective and thorough review will show that nothing inappropriate was collected or retained by Ambassador Bolton.”
Bolton served as US Ambassador to the United Nations under former President George W Bush. He also held various roles at the Justice Department and the State Department.
Part of the investigation focused on allegations that Bolton made notes to himself on a private AOL email account about his activities while serving as national security adviser. cnn Information was given on Tuesday. Authorities are reportedly investigating whether those messages contained classified information.
The probable cause affidavit used by the FBI to support its raid includes a redacted section titled “Bolton’s AOL account hacked by a foreign entity.” The section details how US government officials found Bolton’s AOL emails while gathering intelligence directed at an unnamed nation, msnbc reported last week, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
Trump said he fired Bolton in September 2019, but Bolton claimed he had offered to resign. In the days before the announcement, Bolton was urging Trump not to sign a peace deal with the Taliban. the new York Times, Trump did not sign the agreement, but was reportedly disappointed by media reports about Bolton’s opposition.
Since then, the former national security adviser has been a vocal critic of the president. In 2020, he published The Room Where It Happened: A White House MemoirA searing account of his experience working under Trump. “The President saw intrigue behind the rocks, and remained astonishingly ignorant about running the White House, let alone the vast federal government,” Bolton writes in the book.
Bolton warned that Trump was “ineligible” to run for the White House in January 2024 as his reelection campaign got underway. When Trump took power again in January, He revoked security from Bolton and several other former US officials,
These allegations come later Trump instructed Attorney General Pam BondiGo satya social postto prosecute his alleged political enemies, making an apparent reference to former FBI Director James Comey, Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying, essentially, ‘Same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Leticia??? They are all guilty as hell, but nothing is being done,'” Trump wrote last month.
the message was Reportedly intended to be a private message to Bondi, And Trump was surprised to learn that it was public.
Comey was charged last month with making false statements and obstruction, stemming from his testimony in the Senate in 2020 that he did not authorize leaks to journalists. he has pleaded not guilty,
Meanwhile, James was Charged last week with bank fraud and making false statements To a financial institution in respect of a loan for a property purchased five years ago. James described the allegations as “baseless”.
Independent Bolton’s attorney and the Justice Department have been contacted for comment.