DOJ investigation of John Bolton focuses on diary-like notes in his AOL email account

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN

(CNN) — Part of the Justice Department’s investigation of John Bolton centers around notes he was making to himself in an AOL email account — at times writing summaries of his activities like diary entries — when he was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, and whether they contained classified information, sources familiar with the investigation tell CNN.

In recent days, Justice Department prosecutors have been working to finalize an indictment against Bolton over mishandling classified information, according to court records and prior CNN reporting. Yet, the backbone of what prosecutors have looked at related to Bolton’s AOL account hasn’t been previously reported.

Bolton hasn’t been charged with any crime. His lawyer has maintained he did not have anything inappropriate in his home and office following his federal service.

Bolton, a longtime government official and United Nations ambassador with a high-level security clearance, served in the first Trump administration as national security adviser from 2018 to 2019. Even after exiting the government, he continued to maintain his private office in Washington, where he often would go to work in the early morning hours.

He’s long been known as a meticulous note-taker. Bolton also has had assistants who could have had access to his notes, sources familiar with the investigation have told CNN.

Classified document mishandling investigations often look at whether sensitive information is kept in an unsecured way, such as if others had access, even if a person wasn’t intending to share them information with others.

A spokesperson for Bolton and a spokesperson for the DOJ declined to comment.

Since Trump fired Bolton from the national security job in 2019, Bolton has been a public thorn for the president. He published a tell-all memoir in 2020, and some of the negotiations Bolton and his lawyer had with federal classification reviewers over that book’s manuscript after he left the White House could become part of a criminal case.

But the investigation around Bolton and his AOL account has existed for years — at times separate from any book-related classified mishandling investigation, multiple sources say.

Years ago, US intelligence came to believe Bolton’s emails were hacked by a foreign advisory, with Iran being the top suspect, CNN previously reported.

The hack of the AOL account was part of the reasons federal investigators searched his Maryland home in August, court records about the searches have said.

A search warrant affidavit from the search of Bolton’s home includes several paragraphs discussing the hack of his AOL account, though the entirety of that section of the affidavit is redacted, except for its introductory headline: “Hack of Bolton AOL Account by Foreign Entity.”

The early intelligence about the hack, where Bolton was the victim, evolved into a possible tip that he may have violated the law.

Generally, federal agents working on classified mishandling investigations may seek out records from the account’s owner, such as on their computers or phones, to build a case prompted by foreign intelligence. In the searches of Bolton’s office and home this summer, federal investigators seized multiple phones, drives and computers as well as paper documents about national defense information that had classified markings on them.

The inclusion of a section about the hack in search warrant court papers, which are largely redacted, indicated that it had become a key reason for investigators to believe Bolton may have violated laws that prohibit the unsecured keeping or sharing of national defense and classified records following his departure from the White House in the fall of 2019.

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