John Bolton Pleads Guilty to Retaining Classified Information in Federal Court
Trump’s former national security adviser admitted to one felony count, agreeing to forfeit roughly $2.2 million and accept a prison cap of five years.
John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during President Donald Trump's first term, pleaded guilty Friday to a single felony count of illegally retaining national defense information, bringing a dramatic close to a case that had loomed over one of the president's most prominent former aides turned critics.
Bolton entered the plea in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, before U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang. When the judge asked whether he had committed the conduct described by prosecutors, Bolton answered simply, "I did, your honor," and added that he was "sorry for it." He had originally been indicted on 18 counts — eight of transmitting national defense information and ten of retaining it — covering conduct prosecutors said spanned from April 2018 to August 2025.
According to the government, Bolton routinely took handwritten notes containing highly classified details from his daily intelligence briefings and meetings with foreign leaders, then shared more than 1,000 pages of that material with two family members through text messages and an AOL email account. Some of the information was classified as high as Top Secret, prosecutors said.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, the government agreed not to seek a sentence longer than 60 months, and Bolton agreed to forfeit approximately $2.2 million, perform 100 hours of community service focused on preventing the disclosure of classified information, and surrender any retirement pay tied to his federal service. He also agreed to be debriefed by national security officials about the material he unlawfully kept. Judge Chuang scheduled sentencing for October 28.
Bolton's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said his client "took responsibility for a mistake he made, thereby saving the government resources." The case is notable in part because of Bolton's long and bitter public feud with Trump, whom he has accused of being unfit for office since departing the administration in 2019. Prosecutors framed the plea as evidence that no former official, regardless of rank or political standing, is above the laws protecting the nation's secrets. The resolution spares Bolton the uncertainty of a trial that could have exposed him to far harsher penalties on the full slate of original charges.
The plea also closes one of the highest-profile classified-documents prosecutions to reach resolution in recent years, and it does so against a politically charged backdrop. Bolton, 76, became one of Trump's most relentless critics after his West Wing tenure, publishing a tell-all memoir and warning repeatedly against the president's return to power. Defense lawyers had argued the prosecution smacked of retribution, while the Justice Department maintained the charges rested on documented conduct that endangered national security. By admitting guilt to a single count, Bolton avoids a trial that would have aired classified material in open court and put his own notes and communications under a microscope.
Originally reported by CBS News.