What do you know about the federal charges against John Bolton?

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton turned himself in to federal authorities Friday morning in Maryland and pleaded not guilty after being indicted on charges of keeping top-secret documents in his home and sharing classified information with family members.

Bolton was ordered released from custody after he appeared in court.

His criminal case is the third brought by the Justice Department in recent weeks against someone considered hostile to President Donald Trump. It also heightens concerns that Trump is using the nation’s top law enforcement agency to punish his political opponents.

He watches: Trump advisor-turned-critic John Bolton is accused of handling classified documents

Bolton did not comment to reporters as he entered the federal courthouse in Greenbelt, about 13 miles (21 kilometers) northeast of Washington.

But he said Thursday in a statement after the grand jury returned the 18-count indictment against him that he “became the latest target in weaponizing the Department of Justice to indict those he considers his enemies on charges that had previously been dismissed or distorted the facts.”

Here’s what to know about Bolton and the charges he faces:

Who is John Bolton?

Bolton, 76, is a longtime Republican who spent more than a year as national security adviser during Trump’s first term.

His 17-month tenure was filled with clashes over countries including North Korea and Iran, with him expressing doubts about Trump’s outreach to and summit with Kim Jong Un. Regarding Iran, Bolton supported Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, but favored regime change and was frustrated when Trump called off a planned military strike in 2019.

The Republican president fired Bolton in 2019 and the two continued to feud in public comments long after Bolton left office.

Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened,” was released in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, and was highly critical of Trump and his first term in the White House.

The Trump administration filed a lawsuit to block the book’s release, claiming that it revealed classified information, but the Justice Department under President Joe Biden abandoned the lawsuit in 2021.

Her Bolton, Maryland, home was searched in late August by federal agents.

Charges against Bolton

The indictment, filed against Bolton on Thursday, also accuses him of sharing with his wife and daughter more than 1,000 pages of notes that included sensitive national defense information he obtained from meetings with other U.S. government officials and foreign leaders or from intelligence briefings. Authorities say some of the information was revealed when agents believed to be linked to the Iranian government hacked Bolton’s email account, which he used to send diary-like notes about his activities to relatives.

“Anyone who abuses a position of authority and puts our national security at risk will be held accountable. No one is above the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on Thursday.

The indictment cited an April media interview in which Bolton criticized Trump administration officials for using Signal to discuss sensitive military details.

Authorities say Bolton took meticulous notes about his meetings and briefings as national security adviser, then used a personal email account and messaging platform to share information classified as top secret with members of his family.

The indictment also says that Bolton’s representative told the FBI in July 2021 that his email account had been hacked by agents believed to be connected to the Iranian government, but did not disclose that he shared confidential information through the account or that the hackers now possessed government secrets.

He targeted other Trump enemies

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, was indicted earlier this month in a mortgage fraud case. She was charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with the purchase of a home in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020.

James has sued Trump and his administration dozens of times. It won a stunning ruling last year against Trump and his companies in a lawsuit alleging that he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements.

An appeals court overturned the fine, which had swelled to more than $500 million with interest, but upheld a lower court’s ruling that Trump committed fraud.

Former FBI Director James Comey was charged last September with lying to Congress. The charges against Comey followed Trump’s appearance publicly urging Bondi to prosecute Comey and other perceived political enemies.

He watches: After Comey’s indictment, Trump said he hoped more political opponents would face prosecution

Comey was involved in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, an investigation that Trump claimed was a “hoax” and a “witch hunt” despite multiple government audits that showed Moscow interfered on behalf of the Republican campaign.

Comey was fired during Trump’s first term.