Trump Says to Meet Putin in Budapest After ‘Great’ Call

AFP/APP

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said he would meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Hungary after a “very productive” call on Thursday and questioned Kyiv’s push for Tomahawk missiles — just a day before hosting Ukraine’s leader at the White House.

In his latest abrupt pivot on Russia’s 2022 invasion, Trump said he expected to meet Putin in Budapest within the next two weeks for what would be their second summit since his return to power.

The Kremlin welcomed the “extremely frank and trustful” call and said it was immediately preparing for the summit.

Trump Critic John Bolton Indicted for Mishandling Classified Info

John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, was indicted on Thursday — becoming the third critic of the US president to face 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,” 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 count 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.

Bolton denied the allegations, saying he had “become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department… with charges that were declined before or distort the facts.”

Asked about Bolton’s indictment, Trump called his former aide a “bad guy,” adding, “That’s the way it goes.”

Trump Critics in Legal Jeopardy

Bolton’s indictment follows criminal charges against two other prominent Trump critics — New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey.

James, 66, was indicted by a grand jury in Virginia on October 9 for bank fraud and making false statements linked to a 2020 property purchase in Norfolk, Virginia. She, who previously prosecuted Trump for financial fraud, called the charges “baseless” and “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 said he would seek to have the case dismissed as “vindictive and selective prosecution.”

Trump recently urged Bondi via social media to take action against James, Comey, and other perceived opponents — an escalation in his campaign against political adversaries.

Though Trump did not name Bolton in that post, he has frequently attacked his former advisor and revoked his security detail shortly after returning to the White House in January.

‘Unfit to Be President’

A longtime critic of Iran, Bolton has been a national security hawk and has faced death threats from Tehran. As part of the investigation, FBI agents raided his Maryland home and Washington office in August.

Bolton served as Trump’s national security advisor during his first term but later angered the administration with his tell-all memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.” He has since become a vocal critic of Trump, calling him “unfit to be president.”

Since January, Trump has taken several punitive measures against perceived enemies — purging officials deemed disloyal, targeting law firms involved in previous cases against him, and cutting federal funding to certain universities.

After Trump left office in 2021, Letitia James filed a major civil fraud case accusing him and his company of inflating asset values to secure favorable loans and insurance terms. A New York judge initially ordered Trump to pay $464 million, but a higher court later lifted the fine while upholding the underlying judgment.

The cases against James and Comey were filed by US Attorney Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s handpicked prosecutor, after her predecessor resigned citing insufficient evidence.

Comey, appointed FBI chief by former President Barack Obama in 2013, was fired by Trump in 2017 amid investigations into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump himself faced accusations of mishandling classified documents and attempting to overturn the 2020 election results. Both cases were dropped by special counsel Jack Smith following Trump’s 2024 presidential victory, in line with the Justice Department’s policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.