Former Trump National Security Adviser (NSA)-turned-top Trump critic John Bolton is expected to plead guilty to mishandling classified information while working in the first Trump’s administration.
The Alleged Plea
As reported on Friday’s AM Update, sources telling CNN Bolton intends to plead guilty to one felony count of illegal retention of sensitive national security documents and has also agreed to pay a fine of more than $2 million dollars.
The news of the plea deal comes eight months after Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security advisor from 2018 to 2019, was indicted on 18 counts of illegally hoarding and sending sensitive information.
A Maryland grand jury indicted Bolton on eight counts of transmission of national defense information (NDI) and 10 counts of unlawful retention of NDI after the FBI searched Bolton’s Maryland home and Washington, D.C., office in August 2025 and reportedly seized multiple classified documents.
Bolton pleaded not guilty to all charges in October 2025.
The Allegations
Upon leaving the Trump administration in 2019, the former NSA wrote a book highly critical of his former boss titled The Room Where It Happened. The Trump administration unsuccessfully sued at the time to stop publication of the book, alleging it contained classified information. Bolton, meanwhile, maintained the book went through a pre-publication review and was cleared for publishing.
According to the indictment, Bolton shared “more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities” as NSA with two unidentified family members who are believed to be his wife and daughter.
CNN reported Bolton’s guilty plea will not include charges related to the allegation that he took home or shared classified documents, only that he wrote down sensitive national security information as part of his personal papers.
The indictment in the case did allege that Bolton’s misuse of classified information was done while preparing for his memoir, but sources told CBS News that prosecutors in the plea deal do not allege any wrongdoing by Bolton in connection with the publication of his book.
Bolton’s Initial Denial
Bolton’s October 2025 indictment came around the same time as the since-dismissed criminal cases against fellow Trump antagonists former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
At the time, Bolton claiming to be a victim of a vindictive president. “Now, I have become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those he deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts,” he said, in part, in a statement.
The New York Times, however, reported in August 2025 that the probe into Bolton “began to pick up momentum during the Biden administration.”
Notably absent from Bolton’s statement: A denial that he kept or forwarded classified material while he was national security advisor.
Next Court Appearance
Bolton is expected to submit the plea at a hearing at the U.S. district court in Maryland on June 26. The docket in his case describes the proceeding as a “rearraignment.” The plea deal will require approval from Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang.
The sentencing range for the single count of retaining classified national security information is between zero and 60 months. If Bolton had gone to trial and lost, he could have faced decades in prison.
The Justice Department and Bolton have not commented on the reported plea deal.
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