The Justice Department is preparing to file criminal charges against former National Security Advisor John Bolton as early as next week, NBC News reported Friday.

Prosecutors in Maryland are reportedly weighing whether to seek a grand jury indictment or speed the process along by filing a direct court complaint. If prosecutors opt for the latter route, charges could be announced as early as next week, NBC reported.

Bolton, 76, served in President Donald Trump’s cabinet from 2018 through the following year and has since become a vehement critic. A longtime advocate of interventions in foreign wars, Bolton has frequently criticized Trump’s foreign policy moves and cheered on the Biden DOJ’s indictments against him in 2020.

MSNBC’s Carol Leonnig reported that acting U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes believes there is a strong case that Bolton mishandled classified information following the execution of FBI searches at his Maryland home and office. FBI agents were seen carrying several boxes of materials out of the properties when they were raided on August 22.

According to a publicly released inventory, investigators seized three computers, two iPhones and reams of documents from Bolton’s Bethesda, Maryland home. The bureau also confirmed that Bolton is under criminal investigation for potentially mishandling classified documents and could soon face criminal charges, according to a report from Reuters.

According to reports, the raids were part of an investigation as to whether the 76-year-old illegally took classified documents to include in a book he published in 2020.

In addition to the electronic devices, agents seized two USB drives, a hard drive, four boxes of “printed daily activities,” “typed documents in folders labeled ‘Trump I – IV’” and a white binder labeled “statements and reflections to allied strikes,” according to an inventory released to the public Thursday. The warrant also confirmed that Bolton is being investigated for allegedly violating two sections of the Espionage Act of 1917, which prohibits unauthorized removal or possession of national defense information.

The former Trump ally turned critic is also possibly in violation of another law pertaining to hoarding classified documents, investigators said.

Credible accusations against Bolton first surfaced in 2020, when the Trump Administration filed a lawsuit attempting to block the release of his book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.” The government argued that Bolton did not go through the proper vetting process with the National Security Council when drafting the book, a mandatory process for government officials seeking to publish works that may contain classified information.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth refused to block the publication, but only because it was too late. He did conclude, however, that Bolton “likely published classified materials” and had “exposed his country to harm.” He later allowed the wider lawsuit to go forward, which was ultimately dismissed by the Biden Administration in 2021.

Last month, the New York Times reported that the United States was able to gather data from a spy service belonging to an adversarial nation indicating that Bolton, during his tenure with the Trump Administration in 2019, shared emails that may have contained classified information. The emails were sent to several people close to Bolton through an unsecured server, sources familiar with the investigation told The Times.

Despite constant allegations from Democrats and mainstream media pundits of political targeting on the part of the Trump Administration, The Times reported that the current investigation into Bolton “began to pick up steam” during the Biden presidency. Investigators also believe that documents allegedly taken by Bolton were accessed by an “adversarial” foreign government.

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