In The Room Where It Happened, John Bolton, who briefly served as National Security Adviser to Donald Trump in his first term, goes on a pompous tirade about the childishness and grotesqueness of the Trump regime and its leader.[i] He recounts explosive arguments over tariffs, the Middle East, and NATO, and many other US foreign policy issues. Interestingly, Trump tried to block Bolton’s book from release, claiming that it contained classified information.[ii] This directly links to Bolton’s recent indictment on charges that he mishandled classified information, making notes and sharing them with his wife and daughter.[iii]
Books by former government officials must be submitted for prepublication review, which is a process that ensures any writings by former officials, especially those involved in national security, do not contain classified information.[iv] In practice, prepublication review is censorship. It goes back to the CIA requiring its employees to sign secrecy agreements, barring them from publishing works without the agency’s approval. Then in 1983, Ronald Reagan signed National Security Directive 84, “Safeguarding National Security Information”, which decreed that all intel officials with access to sensitive compartmented information (SCI) must sign an NDA compelling them to submit any manuscripts for prepublication review.[v] Although NSD-84 was eventually suspended at the behest of Congress, many agencies have developed their own forms of prepublication review. The case of Bolton’s book is proof that prepublication review can be abused by the federal government and used to censor critics of the regime. This leads to the DOJ’s indictment of Bolton this week on charges that he mishandled classified information. The central claim is that Bolton kept meticulous, detailed notes in his AOL account that contained classified information, and that his account is may also have been hacked by a foreign entity.[vi] This is one of the reasons Bolton’s home was raided in August, as it has long been suspected that he may have been keeping classified records in an unsecure manner. He has pleaded not guilty, and he compared Trump’s law enforcement team to “Stalin’s secret police”[vii] He can whine all he wants, but the fact is Bolton has called for others who handled classified information to be jailed for centuries or even executed for treason. In 2013, he said that Edward Snowden should “hang from a tall oak tree”, and he said of Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange that they should rot in prison.[viii] He said in a debate with Assange’s wife, Stella, that he “is no more a journalist than the chair I’m sitting on”, and that the sentence he faced if extradited was “a small amount of the sentence he deserves”[ix]
Now, in this latest indictment, it is alleged that Bolton shared classified information with his wife and daughter, related to his memoir. This is like the case of former head of the CIA, David Petraeus, who shared classified documents with his biographer who he was having an extramarital affair with.[x] Petraeus was given a slap on the wrist, and to this day he is revered by the illiberal liberal class. Bolton is too, and his animus for Trump may save him in this case. As Jesselyn Radack, who has defended numerous whistleblowers, including Snowden and Thomas Drake, argues, Bolton has two cases working in his favor.[xi] Firstly, he can potentially have the case dismissed on the grounds that it is selective and vindictive, and Trump’s multiple statements insulting and vowing revenge on him could be used to substantiate this argument. Secondly, there is the reality that the prosecution of those who mishandle classified documents is two-tiered, where who is in power matters more than who has broken the law. As Radack writes, ordinarily, Bolton would likely get a light punishment like Petraeus did, but since we are not in ordinary times, there is a risk that Bolton is the victim of retribution, not actual justice. She writes that “John Bolton may or may not have mishandled classified information, but what’s not at debate is that Trump loathes him, has vowed multiple times to punish him and is basking in the glory of doing so. Bolton is not a sympathetic guy on a human level. But if our crumbling democracy means anything, even insufferable warmongers deserve a fair shake.”[xii] While it is true that Bolton deserves a fair shake, to act like he could possibly be the victim in this case is preposterous. If Bolton is imprisoned, he would simply be living out the standards that he demanded for other leakers of classified info. I do not think he should be imprisoned, nor should he even be indicted, but no one should have any sympathy for someone who is being charged with a crime that they themselves have called treasonous, and that those guilty should be executed.
To be clear, Bolton is scum, and he is a bloodthirsty, cretinous, egotistical, vapid imp who embodies the will of the permanent regime, but this in no way justifies what is clearly a retributive indictment under the draconian Espionage Act, which Trump was as well. The Obama regime prosecuted whistleblowers too, to an exponential degree, and the Trump regime indicted Assange, Daniel Hale, who leaked the drone papers to The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill, and Joshua Schulte, who leaked the Vault 7 documents to Wikileaks which revealed a CIA program that included hacking smart devices like TVs and phones.[xiii] The Espionage Act is archaic and must be reformed, or else it will continue to be abused by despots like Trump and Obama. Many things can be true at once. Bolton is a depraved war criminal, he deserves and must get a fair hearing, even though his indictment is more substantive than Comey’s and James’, it is overtly politically motivated, and the Espionage Act is authoritarian and must be either reformed or scrapped. As Chip Gibbons at Defending Rights and Dissent puts it, “Enough is enough. It is well past time to reform the Espionage Act once and for all.”[xiv]
[i] Bolton, John. The Room Where It Happened. Simon and Schuster, 2020.
[ii] National Security Archive. “The Bolton Book Battle | National Security Archive.” Gwu.edu, June 19, 2020. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/foia/2020-06-19/bolton-book-battle.
[iii] Harris, Shane. “The Atlantic.” The Atlantic. theatlantic, October 17, 2025. https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/archive/2025/10/john-bolton-indictment-trump/684597/.
[iv] Abdo, Alex. “Explainer: Prepublication Review and How It Applies to Bolton.” Knight First Amendment Institute, 2015. https://knightcolumbia.org/content/explainer-prepublication-review-and-how-it-applies-to-bolton.
[v] Federation of American Scientists, and John Pike. “NSDD – National Security Decision Directives – Reagan Administration.” irp.fas.org, 2019. https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/nsdd/index.html.
[vi] Polantz, Katelyn. “DOJ Investigation of John Bolton Focuses on Diary-like Notes in His AOL Email Account.” CNN, October 14, 2025. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/14/politics/bolton-investigation-centers-diary-notes-aol-email.
[vii] Mancini, Ryan. “Bolton Compares Trump Administration to Stalin Secret Police after Indictment.” The Hill, October 17, 2025. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5560137-bolton-responds-trump-indictment/.
[viii] Secular Talk, and Kyle Kulinski. “John Bolton: Hang Snowden from a Tall Oak Tree.” YouTube, December 17, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wFf6NLqDHY.
[ix] Grenfell, Oscar. “Assange’s Wife Stella Moris Demolishes US Warmonger John Bolton on Live TV.” World Socialist Web Site, October 7, 2022. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/10/07/essc-o07.html.
[x] Perez, Evan. “Gen. Petraeus Pleads Guilty to Federal Charge.” CNN, March 3, 2015. https://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/03/politics/general-david-petraeus-guilty-charges.
[xi] Radack, Jesselyn. “John Bolton Is a Warmonger. But He Deserves a Fair Shake.” Salon.com, October 19, 2025. https://www.salon.com/2025/10/19/john-bolton-is-a-warmonger-but-he-deserves-a-fair-shake/.
[xii] Radack. “John Bolton Is a Warmonger. But He Deserves a Fair Shake.”
[xiii] Knight First Amendment Institute. “Press-Related Prosecutions under the Espionage Act.” knightcolumbia.org, 2025. https://knightcolumbia.org/reading-room/espionage-act. and Sterne, Peter. “Obama Used the Espionage Act to Put a Record Number of Reporters’ Sources in Jail, and Trump Could Be Even Worse.” Freedom of the Press, June 21, 2017. https://freedom.press/issues/obama-used-espionage-act-put-record-number-reporters-sources-jail-and-trump-could-be-even-worse/.
[xiv] Gibbons, Chip. “John Bolton & Abuses of the Espionage Act.” Consortium News, October 17, 2025. https://consortiumnews.com/2025/10/17/john-bolton-abuses-of-the-espionage-act/.
References
Abdo, Alex. “Explainer: Prepublication Review and How It Applies to Bolton.” Knight First Amendment Institute, 2015. https://knightcolumbia.org/content/explainer-prepublication-review-and-how-it-applies-to-bolton.
Bolton, John. The Room Where It Happened. Simon and Schuster, 2020.
Federation of American Scientists, and John Pike. “NSDD – National Security Decision Directives – Reagan Administration.” irp.fas.org, 2019. https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/nsdd/index.html.
Gibbons, Chip. “John Bolton & Abuses of the Espionage Act.” Consortium News, October 17, 2025. https://consortiumnews.com/2025/10/17/john-bolton-abuses-of-the-espionage-act/.
Grenfell, Oscar. “Assange’s Wife Stella Moris Demolishes US Warmonger John Bolton on Live TV.” World Socialist Web Site, October 7, 2022. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/10/07/essc-o07.html.
Harris, Shane. “The Atlantic.” The Atlantic. theatlantic, October 17, 2025. https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/archive/2025/10/john-bolton-indictment-trump/684597/.
Knight First Amendment Institute. “Press-Related Prosecutions under the Espionage Act.” knightcolumbia.org, 2025. https://knightcolumbia.org/reading-room/espionage-act.
Mancini, Ryan. “Bolton Compares Trump Administration to Stalin Secret Police after Indictment.” The Hill, October 17, 2025. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5560137-bolton-responds-trump-indictment/.
National Security Archive. “The Bolton Book Battle | National Security Archive.” Gwu.edu, June 19, 2020. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/foia/2020-06-19/bolton-book-battle.
Perez, Evan. “Gen. Petraeus Pleads Guilty to Federal Charge.” CNN, March 3, 2015. https://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/03/politics/general-david-petraeus-guilty-charges.
Polantz, Katelyn. “DOJ Investigation of John Bolton Focuses on Diary-like Notes in His AOL Email Account.” CNN, October 14, 2025. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/14/politics/bolton-investigation-centers-diary-notes-aol-email.
Radack, Jesselyn. “John Bolton Is a Warmonger. But He Deserves a Fair Shake.” Salon.com, October 19, 2025. https://www.salon.com/2025/10/19/john-bolton-is-a-warmonger-but-he-deserves-a-fair-shake/.
Secular Talk, and Kyle Kulinski. “John Bolton: Hang Snowden from a Tall Oak Tree.” YouTube, December 17, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wFf6NLqDHY.
Sterne, Peter. “Obama Used the Espionage Act to Put a Record Number of Reporters’ Sources in Jail, and Trump Could Be Even Worse.” Freedom of the Press, June 21, 2017. https://freedom.press/issues/obama-used-espionage-act-put-record-number-reporters-sources-jail-and-trump-could-be-even-worse/.
Not Without Incident: Questioning Big Brother's Platitudes 
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