Former National Security Adviser John Bolton has been indicted by a federal grand jury.

Bolton, who became a fierce critic of President Trump, is expected to surrender himself as early as Friday.

Prosecutors have been investigating whether he improperly retained classified materials following his departure from the first Trump administration, NBC News reports.

NBC News shared:

Bolton’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has maintained that the former diplomat had handled records appropriately.

The FBI conducted searches of Bolton’s Maryland home and his Washington, D.C., office in August. Redacted search warrant applications showed law enforcement cited Bolton’s “2020 Book Pre-Publication Review” and the “Hack of Bolton AOL Account by Foreign Entity” as a basis for probable cause to search his residence and office.

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The foreign entity’s name remains unclear as the section was redacted in filings that were made public. The book referred to in the search warrant was Bolton’s “The Room Where It Happened,” chronicling his tumultuous time as Trump’s national security adviser.

“An objective and thorough review will show nothing inappropriate was stored or kept by Amb. Bolton,” Lowell said, according to USA TODAY.

When asked about Bolton’s indictment by reporters, Trump said, “I didn’t know that,” NBC News stated.

“I think he’s a bad guy, yeah, he’s a bad guy. Too bad, but that’s the way it goes,” Trump added.

CNN shared a breaking news alert:

USA TODAY noted:

Bolton served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush and was a national security adviser to Trump during his first administration. (Former ambassadors traditionally retain their titles after they no longer hold their positions.)

In the years since serving under Trump, Bolton became a fierce critic of the president. In 2020, Bolton told USA TODAY that he “probably would have” convicted Trump if he had been a senator during the real estate mogul’s first impeachment trial.

Trump was accused in that trial of abusing power by withholding aid to Ukraine to pressure its government to investigate then-former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. The Senate acquitted Trump on that charge, largely along party lines.

In a written inventory of seized property, a government special agent previously described finding restricted documents in Bolton’s Washington office. The inventory document, obtained by Politico, listed travel memo documents with pages labeled “secret,” documents tied to a U.S. mission to the United Nations and to U.S. communications strategy labeled “confidential,” and documents on weapons of mass destruction labeled “classified.”

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