(WASHINGTON) — Government lawyers at a hearing Friday in John Bolton’s classified documents case raised the possibility that more charges could be coming for the former Trump national security adviser.
Bolton was back in court Friday one month after pleading not guilty to all 18 counts of an indictment charging him with unlawful retention and dissemination of national defense information.
When U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang pressed Justice Department attorneys on their proposed seven-month timeline for the case, a government attorney said the agency is going through the process of reviewing all the documents seized at Bolton’s residence “not only for the government to consider potential other charges, but for [Bolton’s lawyer] to be able to present a defense which may be based on the documents that are still being processed.”
Chuang pushed back on the government’s proposed timeline and said the government should be ready to go to trial within 70 days of last month’s indictment.
“Frankly, most of this probably should have been done before the indictment,” Judge Chuang said.
“You should already know what the documents are,” the judge told prosecutors. “The only question is whether they should be produced and when. So I guess I’m not sure why we need seven months for that.”
Bolton’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said his client fully agrees that the issues in the case “outweigh any normal right he would have to a speedy trial.”
Bolton, who became a critic of President Donald Trump after his time in the first Trump administration, is charged with eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information as well as 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information amid what critics call Trump’s campaign of retribution against his perceived political foes.
Vice President JD Vance has said any such prosecutions are “driven by law and not by politics.”
Seven of the transmissions referenced in the indictment allegedly occurred during the time when Bolton was serving at Trump’s national security adviser in 2018 and 2019, while another document was allegedly sent by Bolton just days after Trump removed him from the administration in September 2019.
After a lengthy discussion Friday on the number of documents needed to be processed and the issue of classified information, Judge Chuang set a Jan. 12 deadline for the parties to submit a joint status report on the remaining document review.
The judge also set a deadline of Feb. 13 for Bolton’s lawyers to file any pretrial motions.
Bolton has been a target of Trump’s ire since leaving Trump’s first administration and publishing a tell-all book.
Federal agents in August searched Bolton’s Maryland residence and Washington, D.C., office related to allegations that Bolton possessed classified information.
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