John Bolton, national security adviser during Donald Trump’s first presidency, pleaded guilty Friday to illegally retaining classified information, sealing a deal with federal prosecutors.
Bolton pleaded guilty to a single count of illegally retaining classified information. His agreement with the Justice Department may allow him to avoid prison, but the judge will ultimately decide the sentence. He will be sentenced Oct. 28 by U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The plea agreement recommends that the sentence be limited to five years, but the judge is not bound by that part of the agreement. Bolton can withdraw his guilty plea if the judge imposes a longer prison sentence or a fine of more than $2.25 million.
Bolton was charged last October with 18 counts of preserving or disseminating classified information, including diary-like notes he shared with relatives while writing a memoir about his career in government.
After leaving Trump’s first administration, Bolton was often critical of the president’s foreign policy decisions. He is a frequent analyst on news networks, including CBC News Network.
The president has sharply criticized Bolton since their professional separation, repeatedly calling him a “washed-up guy” and a warmonger who led the country into “World War Six.”
Bolton’s prosecution has sometimes been portrayed as a case of another Trump opponent facing criminal consequences.
While some of those cases have failed due to judicial oversight and amid claims of political retaliation, Bolton did not vigorously defend his allegations before striking a deal, and federal investigations appear to have continued through the last two presidential administrations.
U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes, the top federal prosecutor for Maryland, told the court after Friday’s session that Bolton knew how to properly handle and store confidential information.
“He also knew the harm to national security that could be caused by mishandling this sensitive information. Yet, as Mr. Bolton just admitted, he put our national security at grave risk in violation of the law,” Hayes told reporters.
Stormy one-year term under Trump
Bolton must pay half of the fine within five days of his appeal and the balance within 90 days. He agreed to forgo his retirement benefits for his federal service. The plea deal also requires him to undergo a debriefing with federal intelligence officials and perform up to 100 hours of community service.
After a prosecutor read a summary of his crimes, Bolton agreed it was accurate and told the judge: “I’m sorry.”
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell said Bolton “did what real leaders did” by pleading guilty.
“He took responsibility for a mistake he made, thereby saving the government resources to pursue a case that could reveal additional sensitive information,” Lowell said in a statement after the hearing.
Two blocks from the White House32:48How far will the US Supreme Court let Trump go?
America’s highest court will announce decisions in more than a dozen major cases in the coming days. And with rulings on birthright citizenship, transgender athletes and the Federal Reserve all on the line, the stakes are high as the US president’s agenda is tested by the judiciary. This week, Washington correspondents Katie Simpson, Willy Lowry and Paul Hunter ask: How far will the Supreme Court allow Donald Trump to go?
After leaving office, Bolton faced a lawsuit and a Justice Department investigation related to information in his 2020 book The room where it happenedwhich portrayed Trump as completely uninformed about foreign policy.
The Trump administration claimed that Bolton’s manuscript contained classified information whose disclosure could harm national security.
The current investigation became public in August 2025 when the FBI searched his home in Maryland and his office in Washington, DC
Bolton served in three previous Republican presidential administrations dating back to Ronald Reagan’s presidency, when he was hired by Trump as his third national security adviser in 2018. But his short term in office was marked by disputes with the president over North Korea, Iran and Ukraine.
Multiple fights over secret documents
The handling of classified material has been a dominant theme in U.S. politics over the past decade, beginning with an investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of emails at her residence in upstate New York that did not result in charges but appeared to have a negative impact on her 2016 presidential campaign.
Former President Joe Biden has come under his own scrutiny after documents with secret markings were found in a former office in Washington and at his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
An investigation by the special counsel did not result in any penalties, but the Prosecutor’s statement on Biden’s interview over the matter reinforced the impression that the Democrat was struggling with cognitive problems.
Former US President Donald Trump says there is no difference between his possession of secret documents and that of current President Joe Biden. Andrew Chang explains what Trump is right about – and what he’s wrong about.
In 2023, the FBI executed a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, which resulted in a multi-count indictment included charges under the Espionage Act. Documents were found at various locations on the property, officials said, including some with the highest level of secrecy, “top secret.”
Trump’s remarkable political comeback in 2024, which culminated in another presidential election victory, halted prosecutions based on the US legal tradition that a sitting president cannot be indicted. A special investigator’s report on the investigation was silenced in a federal judge’s ruling.
Democrats have reacted with alarm in the last few weeks issued a statement This was decided in the spring by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which argued that a federal law requiring a president to turn over certain documents to the National Archives was unconstitutional. Democrats say the edict could create the conditions for Trump to keep highly sensitive information and face no consequences after his current presidency.
In general, some analysts and former government officials say have argued that the government’s information process is dysfunctional and confusing, with many documents classified as confidential rather out of an abundance of caution and not for the actual content of the information.
