John Bolton, the former National Security Adviser to President Donald Trump, is having quite a bad week, and now faces deeply troubling federal charges.

According to the Associated Press, Bolton was indicted by a federal grand jury this week on a staggering 18 charges regarding the alleged mishandling of classified documents. He's going to need a significant legal defense to fight the charges. 

Bolton, according to the outlet, was "charged Thursday with storing top secret records at home and sharing with relatives diary-like notes about his time in government that contained classified information."

Some of the charges are related to an Iranian-led hack that resulted in the accessing of Bolton's emails, which contained classified information.

What's going on?

Notably, Bolton had made authorities aware of the hack in 2021, but failed to disclose that some of the information that was hacked was unauthorized classified information.

The AP noted:

A Bolton representative told the FBI in 2021 that his emails had been hacked, prosecutors say, but did not reveal he had shared classified information through the account or that the hackers now had possession of government secrets.

According to The Hill, Bolton and his team responded to the indictment this week, claiming he's simply the target of a retribution campaign spearheaded by President Trump and his Department of Justice.

Bolton was indicted Thursday in a federal court in Greenbelt, MD.

John Bolton indicted by Grand Jury on 18 counts, one redacted portion of the affidavit suggests that Bolton's personal AOL email account had been hacked by the foreign entity, and that the government recovered emails from that hacked account that raised more questions if he… pic.twitter.com/1LAW2wewA3

— marinamillern (@Marmi4U) October 16, 2025

Bolton faces potentially huge consequences if he's found guilty.

The Hill noted:

Bolton faces 18 total charges: eight counts of transmitting national defense information and 10 counts of retaining national defense information.

Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, although Bolton is a first-time offender who would likely face a lesser punishment if convicted.

Social media reacts

Users across social media reacted to the news of Bolton's indictment.

"I wouldn't put it passed Bolton to have sent the information to another country and then pretend his account was hacked," one X user wrote.

Another X user wrote, "This was already under investigation but the Biden regime dropped it, not surprisingly."