Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton has pleaded not guilty to mishandling classified information, vowing to fight what he views as an abuse of power by his former boss.
The morning after he was indicted by a Grand Jury in Maryland, the high-profile Trump critic appeared in federal court on Friday morning to face 18 charges, each with a maximum of 10 years in jail, for allegedly holding and sharing highly sensitive national defense information.
He did not speak to reporters as he left the courtroom, but in an earlier statement, he made it clear that he believed the case was another effort by Trump to target his political enemies.
His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has also portrayed the matter as an attempt to punish Bolton for taking notes for his 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, which documented his time with the Trump administration and was critical of the president.
“Now, I have become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those he deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts,” Bolton said in a statement.
But as Bolton faces life in prison if convicted, MAGA Republicans have set their sights on another Trump adversary: former special counsel Jack Smith, who indicted Trump in 2023 over his own handling of classified documents and his attempt to subvert the 2020 election.
The career prosecutor, who Trump angrily refers to as “Deranged Jack Smith”, was referred to the Department of Justice on Friday over claims that he obtained the phone records of nine Republican members of Congress in 2023 as part of his probe into Trump’s alleged election meddling.
While the records obtained were limited to metadata, such as the time and duration of calls, and not the content of the conversations, Republicans have accused Smith of spying and weaponizing federal law enforcement under the Biden administration.
“We write today following last week’s deeply disturbing revelations that the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) spied on duly elected members of Congress, specifically seeking and ultimately obtaining “tolling data” from cell phones as part of its corrupt, politically motivated Arctic Frost investigation,” a group of Republicans, led by Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, wrote in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“It is clear to us that this invasion of our privacy was nothing more than a fishing expedition geared toward targeting President Trump. For the reasons outlined below, we request that you immediately refer Jack Smith to the Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).”
The OPR is a unit within the department that deals with professional misconduct and makes recommendations for disciplinary action, such as disbarment.
The push for a probe comes days after Smith, who resigned in January before Trump could sack him, spoke out about the Trump administration in a rare interview, warning that its attacks on public servants had an “incalculable” cost on the country.
Smith also spoke about attacks on the judiciary, saying judges and prosecutors “should not be thinking of their jobs as popularity contests.”
“They need the room and space to make decisions that some people might not like,” he said in an interview with former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissman at University College London Faculty of Laws.
A furious Trump hit back at the comments on Thursday, accusing Smith of weaponizing the justice system to stop him from returning to office.
“Deranged Jack Smith, in my opinion is a criminal,” he said.
He also fumed about the FBI raid on his home at Mar-a-Lago, which led to him being indicted by Smith for mishandling classified documents—although Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon ultimately threw the case out.
Now Bolton is facing similar charges, accused of using personal email and a messaging app to share more than 1,000 pages of “diary” notes about his time as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser.
The notes, sent to two family members who did not have security clearances, included details about a foreign adversary’s attack plans, intelligence sources and methods, and covert action by the U.S government.
Iran later hacked into his personal email account and gained unauthorized access to some classified material, the indictment says.
But Bolton’s lawyer Abbe Lowell argues that his client “did not unlawfully share or store any information.”
“Like many public officials throughout history, Amb. Bolton kept diaries – that is not a crime,” he said.
The post Trump Lines Up Next Target as Bolton Could Face Life in Prison appeared first on The Daily Beast.
