STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
John Bolton turned himself in today. This is after his indictment for sharing classified information. Now, there are two ways to look at that indictment.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
One way is that President Trump's former national security adviser was indicted for violating the law. The other is that the Justice Department is prosecuting another of President Trump's critics. That leaves a big question. How legitimate is the case, and how strong is the evidence?
INSKEEP: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is here to work through what we know in our studios here, Studio 31. Ryan, good morning.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: Good to see you early. What is Bolton charged with exactly, and what does the Justice Department say he did?
LUCAS: Well, look, he's facing 18 counts in this indictment - eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information. And this all dates back to 2018 and 2019, when Bolton was Trump's national security adviser. And the indictment says that during that time, Bolton would regularly take handwritten notes on yellow notepads about his daily activities - things that he was hearing in meetings with U.S. intelligence officials or military officials, what was being said in meetings with foreign leaders - so sensitive stuff. Bolton would then transcribe those diary-like entries into electronic form, the indictment says. And then he sent them via a commercial messaging app or his personal email accounts to two family members who did not have security clearances. In total, the indictment says Bolton sent them more than 1,000 pages of information, including highly classified materials, and federal agents recovered printed and digital copies of some of those when they searched Bolton's Maryland home back in August.
INSKEEP: What was the classified material, though?
LUCAS: Well, the indictment doesn't go into detail. There are not country names, for example, but it does provide certainly some sense of what the materials were. One document, for example, the indictment says, reveals intelligence about a foreign adversary's plans to attack U.S. forces. It also reveals a covert action planned by the United States - so very sensitive stuff. Now, you may remember that Bolton wrote a tell-all memoir that was very critical of Trump. There was a fight several years ago over whether it contained classified information. The indictment says none of the classified information in the charged counts appears in Bolton's book. But it does say that after Bolton left the first Trump administration, his personal email, at some point, was hacked by people believed to be tied to the Iranian government. And the indictment says that those hackers did gain access to the classified information that he was sending over his personal email.
INSKEEP: What has Bolton said about all of this?
LUCAS: Bolton said in a statement that he has become what he calls the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to targe those who Trump sees as his enemies. He says he looks forward to fighting this, to defending what he calls his lawful conduct and to exposing what he says is Trump's abuse of power.
INSKEEP: You've just brought up the crucial question here or a crucial question anyway. The Justice Department indicted FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both seemingly on the orders of President Trump because they are enemies or perceived enemies of President Trump. Is Bolton's case the same?
LUCAS: Well, look, you mentioned how Trump publicly urged the Justice Department to prosecute both Comey and James, and not long after, both of them were indicted in cases that we know career prosecutors had serious doubts about.
INSKEEP: Right.
LUCAS: But they were overruled by a newly installed top prosecutor who once worked as Trump's personal attorney. Yes, Trump is no fan of Bolton's. Yes, Bolton is a very outspoken critic of Trump's. But the case against Bolton comes out of a different U.S. attorney's office. This has followed the normal standard process. And also, this was a long-running investigation. It was going on under the Biden administration, so it predates Trump's return to office. We now have this 26-page indictment with a lot of detailed allegations. So there are significant differences. Now we'll see how it all plays out in court.
INSKEEP: This is very interesting because you're saying professionals handled this, which gives us some reassurance, and it's that very professionalism that was questioned by the Trump administration in the past. Ryan, thanks so much.
LUCAS: Thank you.
INSKEEP: NPR's Ryan Lucas. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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