GREENBELT, Md. – In a significant development, John Bolton, a former national security adviser under the Trump administration, faces charges linked to the unlawful storage and transmission of classified information. These charges were formally brought against him on Thursday.

The public became aware of the investigation into Bolton in August when the FBI conducted searches at his residence in Maryland and his office in Washington, D.C. The searches aimed to uncover any classified documents Bolton might have retained from his tenure in government. Bolton’s service in the Trump administration, which lasted over a year, ended with his dismissal in 2019.

The indictment, comprising 18 counts, sets the stage for a highly anticipated legal battle. Bolton, a well-known figure within Republican foreign policy circles, is recognized for his assertive stance on American global influence. After his departure from the Trump administration, he emerged as a vocal critic of the former president. While the investigation began during Biden’s presidency and had roots before Trump’s second term, the unfolding case raises broader questions about the politicization of the Justice Department.

During their August search, agents confiscated several documents from Bolton’s office. These documents bore classifications such as “classified,” “confidential,” and “secret,” as revealed in court documents that have since been unsealed. The seized materials reportedly dealt with subjects like weapons of mass destruction, strategies for national communication, and the U.S. mission to the United Nations.

This development comes on the heels of other high-profile indictments. Last month saw the charging of former FBI Director James Comey with lying to Congress and New York Attorney General Letitia James with bank fraud and false statements. Both deny the charges. These cases were filed in federal court in Virginia by a prosecutor who was swiftly appointed by Trump after expressing dissatisfaction over the lack of prosecutions against prominent adversaries.

The Bolton case, by contrast, was filed in Maryland by a U.S. attorney who before being elevated to the job had been a career prosecutor in the office.

Questions about Bolton’s handling of classified information date back years. He faced a lawsuit and a Justice Department investigation after leaving office related to information in a 2020 book he published, “The Room Where it Happened,” that portrayed Trump as grossly uninformed about foreign policy.

The Trump administration asserted that Bolton’s manuscript included classified information that could harm national security if exposed. Bolton’s lawyers have said he moved forward with the book after a White House National Security Council official, with whom Bolton had worked for months, said the manuscript no longer contained classified information.

A search warrant affidavit that was previously unsealed said a National Security Council official had reviewed the book manuscript and told Bolton in 2020 that it appeared to contain “significant amounts” of classified information, some at a top-secret level.

Bolton’s attorney Abbe Lowell has said that many of the documents seized in August had been approved as part of a pre-publication review for Bolton’s book. He said that many were decades old, from Bolton’s long career in the State Department, as an assistant attorney general and as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The indictment is a dramatic moment in Bolton’s long career in government. He served in the Justice Department during President Ronald Reagan’s administration and was the State Department’s point man on arms control during George W. Bush’s presidency. Bolton was nominated by Bush to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but the strong supporter of the Iraq war was unable to win Senate confirmation and resigned after serving 17 months as a Bush recess appointment. That allowed him to hold the job on a temporary basis without Senate confirmation.

In 2018, Bolton was appointed to serve as Trump’s third national security adviser. But his brief tenure was characterized by disputes with the president over North Korea, Iran and Ukraine.

Those rifts ultimately led to Bolton’s departure, with Trump announcing on social media in September 2019 that he had accepted Bolton’s resignation. Bolton subsequently criticized Trump’s approach to foreign policy and government in his 2020 book, including by alleging that Trump directly tied providing military aid to the country’s willingness to conduct investigations into Joe Biden, who was soon to be Trump’s Democratic 2020 election rival, and members of his family.

Trump responded by slamming Bolton as a “washed-up guy” and a “crazy” warmonger who would have led the country into “World War Six.” Trump also said at the time that the book contained “highly classified information” and that Bolton “did not have approval” for publishing it.

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Tucker and Durkin Richer reported from Washington.