John Bolton Indictment Provides Interesting Details About Hack of His AOL Account and Extortion Attempt

According to Kim Zetter, the FBI investigated former national security adviser John Bolton after he admitted in July 2021 that hackers—believed to be from Iran—had breached his private AOL email account and extorted him over classified information.

The breach had been reported last month by CNN, following a law enforcement search of Bolton’s office and home in August, though CNN’s report was based on a redacted search warrant affidavit with only a header visible: “Hack of Bolton AOL Account by Foreign Entity.” The indictment released on Thursday provides details of the breach and explains how Bolton found himself extorted after regularly sending what prosecutors say were top-secret documents to his wife and daughter via email and encrypted chat.

Prosecutors say Bolton did this regularly over the fifteen short months he was in the job, often sending excited messages with multiple exclamation points and 10- to 25-page documents describing White House Situation Room discussions or information learned in other meetings.