When his former national security adviser, John Bolton, was indicted for allegedly mishandling classified information, President Donald Trump had few words of consolation.
“I think he’s a bad guy. Yeah – he’s a bad guy. It’s too bad, but that’s the way it goes, Trump said at a press conference.
In fact, Trump called Bolton a “criminal” in 2020, alleging Bolton published classified information in a book and “should go to jail for that.” (Bolton is now criminally accused of transmitting classified information, but not through a book.)
Ironically, Trump himself once faced some similar charges to Bolton’s. The president was charged in 2023 with willfully retaining national defense information. That same year, a spokesperson for Trump’s 2024 campaign called those charges an “empty hoax.”
Trump, like Bolton, pleaded not guilty. After he won the 2024 presidential election, the Justice Department dropped the case, citing a policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.
Bolton, who turned from serving under Trump in his first presidential term to repeatedly questioning his fitness for office, now faces allegations of keeping and transmitting classified information, including in some instances top secret national defense information.
While the allegations against the two men differ in key respects, they also bear some striking similarities. For instance, both have been accused of unlawfully keeping U.S. military intelligence and exposing classified information to unauthorized individuals.
A spokesperson for Bolton said he was unavailable for comment for this story. Abbe Lowell, one of Bolton’s lawyers, previously told USA TODAY in a statement that the facts in Bolton’s case were investigated and resolved years ago.
“We look forward to proving once again that Amb. Bolton did not unlawfully share or store any information,” Lowell said of his client, who previously served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
The Justice Department declined to comment publicly for this story. The White House didn’t respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment.
Here’s a look at how the allegations against the two men are similar and different.
Former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton leaves federal court after pleading not guilty to charges of mishandling classified material on October 17, 2025 in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Trump and Bolton both accused of wrongly keeping top secret information
Trump and Bolton have both been accused of improperly keeping classified information, including in some instances top secret information. That’s information the government has deemed so sensitive that its unauthorized disclosure “could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.”
Trump allegedly stored classified documents in boxes at his Mar-a-Lago Club on U.S. and foreign weapons capabilities, U.S. nuclear programs, and ways in which the U.S. and its allies could be vulnerable to a military attack.
In this handout photo provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, stacks of boxes were allegedly observed in a bathroom and shower in The Mar-a-Lago Club’s Lake Room at former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Bolton allegedly kept at his home intelligence about future attacks by foreign adversaries and about covert actions that the U.S. government was either planning or had already conducted.
Bolton, but not Trump, charged with transmitting national defense information
Details in the indictment against Trump accused him of sharing classified information with a writer, a publisher, two of his staff members, and a representative of his political action committee. In one audio-recorded meeting, for instance, Trump allegedly showed and described to several of those people a “plan of attack” prepared by the Department of Defense.
However, Trump wasn’t charged with transmitting national defense information to an unauthorized person. By contrast, Bolton is accused of doing so extensively.
The day before Bolton began serving as national security adviser in Trump’s first presidential administration, he allegedly created a group chat on a non-governmental messaging application with two other people. Their names aren’t included in the indictment, but several media outlets have reported those individuals were his wife and daughter, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
Bolton repeatedly sent those individuals, whom he referred to as his “editors,” classified information in “diary-like entries.” Some of the entries appear to have been used for his subsequent book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.”
Former national security adviser John Bolton mimics photos of President Donald Trump holding a Bible after an interview with USA TODAY’s Washington, DC bureau chief Susan Page in advance of the release of his book, ‘In the Room Where It Happened.’
On some occasions, Bolton allegedly used personal, non-governmental email accounts hosted by AOL and Google to email information that was classified to the two unauthorized individuals at their personal email accounts.
Trump, but not Bolton, charged with obstructing justice in repeated alleged cover-up efforts
While Trump wasn’t charged with transmitting national defense information, he was charged with trying to cover up his alleged misdeeds, unlike Bolton. Trump faced criminal counts of conspiring to obstruct justice, concealing documents and making false statements.
Trump allegedly tried to impede investigations by the FBI and a grand jury into whether he was continuing to retain classified documents by suggesting his lawyer falsely say he didn’t have classified documents, telling his aide to move boxes of documents, and trying to delete security camera footage that would have shown boxes were moved.
One Trump aide allegedly told The Mar-a-Lago Club’s IT director that “the boss” wanted the server holding the security camera footage deleted, after a subpoena was issued for such footage.
Bolton, but not Trump, allegedly hacked by foreign adversary
Only Bolton’s indictment alleges a foreign adversary may have gotten access to classified national defense information as a result of alleged information mishandling.
Sometime between September of 2019 and July of 2021, a cyber actor who the government believes is associated with Iran’s government hacked Bolton’s personal email account and got access to information Bolton emailed improperly, according to his indictment.
White House National Security Advisor John Bolton (R) listens to U.S. President Donald Trump as he and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte talk to reporters in the Oval Office at the White House July 18, 2019 in Washington, DC.
The hack may have been seeking to blackmail Bolton.
“I do not think you would be interested in the FBI being aware of the leaked content of John’s email (some of which have been attached),” a person wrote to Bolton and his representative in an email in July of 2021. “This could be the biggest scandal since Hillary’s emails were leaked, but this time on the GOP side! Contact me before its too late…”
A representative for Bolton notified the U.S. government of the hack, but didn’t state that the email account had classified information, according to the indictment.
Bolton and Trump both accused of hypocrisy in statements on Clinton emails and Hegseth Signal messages
In the indictment, prosecutors suggested Bolton and Trump spoke hypocritically when they talked about how other officials with access to U.S. intelligence communicated on non-official platforms.
Some of their statements concerned former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for thousands of emails. Justice Department prosecutors concluded that none of the emails on the server included clear classification markings, although three email chains had paragraphs marked “C” for confidential. Those chains were missing further required markings for classified information.
“If I had done at the State Department what Hillary Clinton did, I’d be wearing an orange jumpsuit now,” Bolton told CNN in January of 2017.
“In my administration, I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information,” Trump said in a public address in August of 2016. “No one will be above the law.”
Bolton’s indictment also notes statements he made about a report from The Atlantic magazine on messages Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sent to a group chat on the private, encrypted messaging app, Signal. The messages detailed the timing and weapons used in a U.S. attack in Yemen. Several senior members of the current Trump administration participated in the chat.
“What were they doing off of secure government channels? That is the original sin here,” Bolton allegedly said in a media interview in March of 2025.
“I couldn’t find a way to express how stunned I was that anybody would do this,” Bolton allegedly said in a media interview in April of 2025. “You simply don’t use commercial means of communication, whether it’s supposedly an encrypted app or not for for these kinds of discussions.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: John Bolton’s classified info indictment vs. Donald Trump’s
