Criminal charges against Bolton expected as early as next week

The acting U.S. Attorney in Maryland is moving forward quickly to seek criminal charges against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, according to two people familiar with the case.

A complaint or an indictment could come as early as next week, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters without authorization.

A grand jury in Maryland has been hearing evidence for several weeks related to claims that Bolton improperly kept classified national security information in his Maryland home. But the pace of the case has recently sped up, the two people said.

If Bolton is criminally charged as attorneys in the Maryland office expect, he would be the third of Trump’s perceived enemies to face federal prosecution under Trump’s Department of Justice in a matter of a few weeks. Bolton, whom Trump fired from his first administration, has been a vocal critic of the president. His lawyer has said he did nothing improper.

Unlike the widespread resistance career prosecutors in Virginia have shown to Trump’s pressure campaign to charge former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, career prosecutors in Maryland consider charges against Bolton to have some factual merit, the people said.