President Trump called his former national security advisor, John Bolton, “a bad person” and “a bad guy” as the government’s indictment unveiled on Tuesday alleged that Mr. Bolton was illegally sharing classified information with family.

Mr. Bolton was indicted by a federal grand jury in Maryland on 18 counts of improperly storing top secret documents at his Bethesda home and sharing, with relatives, diary-like national security notes, prosecutors said Thursday.

Mr. Bolton, who served for just 17 months as national security advisor during President Trump’s first term — he is the longest-serving of Mr. Trump’s six national security advisors, so far — is accused of using a personal email account to send more than 1,000 pages of information to two relatives while he was working at the White House.

Mr. Bolton is accused of unlawfully retaining documents, writings, and notes relating to national defense. This included “TOP SECRET/SCI level” intelligence on a foreign adversary’s planned missile launch and assessments of a foreign military leader, according to prosecutors.

Mr. Bolton allegedly shared “more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities as the National Security Advisor-including information relating to the national defense which was classified up to the TOP SECRET/SCI level-with two unauthorized individuals.” The individuals, who are unnamed in court documents, are reportedly Mr. Bolton’s wife and daughter.

Prosecutors also allege that in 2021, Mr. Bolton failed to tell the FBI that a personal email account that was hacked by a “cyber actor” with ties to the Iranian regime was also an account he used to transmit classified and national defense information. “Nor did he tell the FBI that the hackers now had this information,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.

In a statement Thursday, Mr. Bolton said that the FBI was “fully aware” of the hack and that no charges were filed in previous investigations.

“These charges are not just about his focus on me or my diaries, but his intensive effort to intimidate his opponents, to ensure that he alone determines what is said about his conduct,” Mr. Bolton said in a statement.

“I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power.”

Thursday’s 18-count indictment makes Mr. Bolton the third Trump critic to face  federal criminal charges in recent weeks.

At a White House press conference Thursday afternoon, President Trump responded to the news of Mr. Bolton’s indictment by repeatedly calling him a “bad person” but insisted he was not following the case.

“I think he’s a bad person,” Mr. Trump said. “That’s the way it goes.”

News of Mr. Bolton’s indictment comes just months after the FBI conducted surprise early-morning raids for classified documents at his Bethesda home and his Washington office.

Federal agents recovered records from his office labeled “confidential” and “classified” during the August 22 raid, including documents referencing weapons of mass destruction, diplomatic travel memos, and records of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, according to court records. 

Mr. Bolton has said his 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” did not include any classified material.

“My book was reviewed and approved by the appropriate, experienced career clearance officials,” Mr. Bolton said in a statement Thursday.

Mr. Bolton’s lawyers also say that he proceeded with the book after a White House National Security Council official reviewed it and confirmed that it did not contain classified information. 

Mr. Trump unsuccessfully tried to block the book from publication, accusing Mr. Bolton of including classified information that could compromise national security.

Mr. Bolton’s book was a no. 1 New York Times best seller and one of the most successful Trump tell-alls, selling 780,000 copies in its first week alone. In the book, Mr. Bolton portrayed Mr. Trump as a gullible figure easily manipulated by foreign strongmen. The president was said to be particularly irritated by the book’s commercial success.

The Department of Justice has already secured indictments against a former FBI director, James Comey, and Attorney General Letitia James of New York, for making false statements to Congress and bank fraud, respectively. 

In recent weeks, a former defense attorney for Mr. Trump and the interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, advanced criminal charges against Mr. Comey and Ms. James after her predecessor, Erik Siebert, was forced out after Mr. Trump objected to the strong support he had received from Virginia’s two Democratic senators, who Mr. Trump despises.

ABC News also reported that Mr. Siebert was hesitant to press charges against Ms. James, citing insufficient evidence that a crime had been committed.  

“Unlike the Comey and James indictments, which were bullshit on their face, this case looks real and substantial.  We’ll have to see the actual evidence before we can assess how it may come out,” attorney George Conway wrote on X.