John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, was indicted on Thursday — the third foe of the US president to be hit with criminal charges in recent weeks.The 76-year-old veteran diplomat was charged by a federal grand jury in Maryland with 18 counts of transmitting and retaining classified information.The 26-page indictment accuses Bolton of sharing top secret documents by email with two “unauthorized individuals” who are not identified but are believed to be his wife and daughter.It says he shared more than 1,000 pages of “diary-life” entries about his work as national security advisor via non-government email or a messaging app.The Justice Department said the documents “revealed intelligence about future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign-policy relations.”Each of the counts carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. “Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.In a statement to US media, Bolton refuted the charges and said he had “become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department… with charges that were declined before or distort the facts.”Asked for his reaction to Bolton’s indictment, Trump told reporters his former aide is a “bad guy” and “that’s the way it goes.”- Trump critics in legal jeopardy -Bolton’s indictment follows the filing of criminal charges by the Justice Department against two other prominent critics of the Republican president — New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey.The 66-year-old James was indicted by a grand jury in Virginia on October 9 on charges of bank fraud and making false statements related to a property she purchased in 2020 in Norfolk, Virginia.James, who successfully prosecuted Trump for financial fraud, has rejected the charges as “baseless” and described them as “political retribution.”Comey, 64, pleaded not guilty on October 8 to charges of making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.His lawyer has said he will seek to have the case thrown out on the grounds that it is a vindictive and selective prosecution.Trump recently publicly urged Bondi in a social media post to take action against James, Comey and others he sees as enemies, in an escalation of his campaign against political opponents.Trump did not specifically mention Bolton in the Truth Social post, but he has lashed out at his former advisor in the past and withdrew his security detail shortly after returning to the White House in January.- ‘Unfit to be president’ -A longtime critic of the Iranian regime, Bolton was a national security hawk and has received death threats from Tehran.As part of the investigation into Bolton, FBI agents raided his Maryland suburban home and his Washington office in August.Bolton served as Trump’s national security advisor in his first term and later angered the administration with the publication of a highly critical book, “The Room Where It Happened.”He has since become a highly visible and pugnacious detractor of Trump, frequently appearing on television news shows and in print to condemn the man he has called “unfit to be president.”Since January, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against perceived enemies, purging government officials he deemed to be disloyal, targeting law firms involved in past cases against him and pulling federal funding from universities.After Trump left the White House in 2021, James brought a major civil fraud case against him, alleging he and his real estate company had inflated his wealth and manipulated the value of properties to obtain favorable bank loans or insurance terms.A New York state judge ordered Trump to pay $464 million, but a higher court removed the financial penalty while upholding the underlying judgment.The cases against James and Comey were filed by Trump’s handpicked US attorney, Lindsey Halligan, after the previous federal prosecutor resigned, saying there was not enough evidence to charge them.Appointed to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation by then-president Barack Obama in 2013, Comey was fired by Trump in 2017 amid the probe into whether any members of the Trump presidential campaign had colluded with Moscow to sway the 2016 election.Trump was accused of mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House and plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.Neither case came to trial, and special counsel Jack Smith — in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president — dropped them both after Trump won the November 2024 presidential election.

A socialist, an accused molester and a vigilante all hoping to be New York’s next mayor clashed in a debate with “high levels of testosterone” Thursday as the unpredictable campaign enters the homestretch.Democratic candidate and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, independent former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa pitched to voters in the first of two televised debates ahead of the November 4 election. Early voting begins on October 25.Mamdani attacked Cuomo for his alleged sexual misconduct and controversial governing record “sending seniors to their death in nursing homes” during the Covid pandemic.”Thank God I’m not a professional politician because they have created the crime crisis in this city,” Sliwa said, gesturing at his two rivals.”There’s high levels of testosterone in this room,” he said later.Mamdani pulled off a stunning upset in the Democratic Party primary, defeating political scion Cuomo who had been the favorite for weeks, becoming the party’s official nominee.Mamdani has promised free bus services, rent freezes and city-run supermarkets, which Cuomo has panned as fanciful and unaffordable government overreach.The race to govern the city’s 8.5 million people was again upended when sitting Mayor Eric Adams, who has been engulfed in corruption allegations, quit the race without endorsing another candidate.Cuomo, 67, was the state governor from 2011 until 2021, when he resigned over sexual assault allegations.Mamdani, 33, is a state lawmaker for the city borough of Queens and has run an insurgent grass-roots campaign that has motivated young New Yorkers at a high rate.- ‘Take on Trump’ -Trump has threatened to withhold federal funds from Mamdani’s administration if he is elected, calling him a “communist.”But Mamdani said “I would make it clear to the president that I am willing to not only speak to him, but to work with him, if it means delivering on lowering the cost of living for New York.”Cuomo warned “Trump will take over New York City, and it will be Mayor Trump” if Mamdani won — mirroring the takeover of much of the administration of the capital Washington.Trump said Wednesday he had “terminated” the $16 billion Hudson Gateway tunnel linking New York to New Jersey, a years-long megaproject. Asked in the debate for his dream news headline, Mamdani said it would be “Mamdani continues to take on Trump.”Quinnipiac University polling suggests most voters will not have their minds changed by the TV debate with just 18 percent of Mamdani and Cuomo’s supporters “not likely” to alter their pick, compared to 24 percent of Sliwa’s backers.In the latest polling Sliwa, a 71-year-old who founded the Guardian Angels vigilante group in 1979, is trailing a distant third with 15 percent in the most recent poll, behind Cuomo’s 33 percent and Mamdani’s 46 percent.Sliwa insisted he would not bow to inducements he alleged were arranged by Cuomo — who denies the claim — to quit the race, like lucrative jobs with fat salaries and a driver.”I said, ‘Hey, this is not only unethical, it’s bribery, and it could be criminal,” Sliwa told AFP ahead of the showdown.One of the most acrimonious exchanges in the debate, held without an audience, centered on the safety of New York’s significant Jewish community.Cuomo accused Mamdani of not condemning Hamas and endorsing an epithet he claimed meant death to all Jews globally, while Sliwa accused both of being soft on hate crimes because of their endorsement of cash bail.”Why would (Mamdani) not condemn Hamas? He still won’t denounce ‘globalize the intifada,’ which means kill all Jews,” Cuomo said, drawing an instant rejection from Mamdani.Sliwa pointed to his leadership of a vigilante group saying he had “been there for all people at all times for 46 years as leader of the Guardian Angels here and around the world.”A second debate will be held on October 22.

From New York to San Francisco, millions of Americans are expected to hit the streets to voice their anger over President Donald Trump’s policies at nationwide “No Kings” protests.The last day of rallies by the “No Kings” movement — which unites some 300 organizations — drew massive crowds on June 14, as Trump staged a military parade in Washington on his birthday.It was the biggest day of demonstrations since the Republican billionaire returned to the White House in January to begin his second term as president.Four months later, organizers have planned more than 2,600 demonstrations coast to coast, with millions of people expected to participate again, a movement spokesperson said.Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer for the American Civil Liberties Union, told reporters Thursday that protesters wanted to convey that “we are a country of equals.””We are a country of laws that apply to everyone, of due process and of democracy. We will not be silenced,” she said.Leah Greenberg, the co-founder of the Indivisible Project, slammed the Trump administration for sending the US National Guard into cities, cracking down on undocumented migrants and prosecuting political opponents.”It is the classic authoritarian playbook, threaten, smear and lie, scare people into submission. But we will not be intimidated. We will not be cowed,” Greenberg said.Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, called it an “obligation to fight for the people in America.”She said protesters were committed to making sure that “this is a country where we see a democracy going forward, not backward.”Beyond New York and San Francisco, protests are scheduled in major cities like Washington, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and New Orleans, as well as in smaller towns across the country.The “No Kings” movement is even organizing events in Canada, with rallies planned in Toronto, Vancouver and the capital Ottawa.