Former national security adviser John Bolton pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to mishandling sensitive national security information related to his work during the first Trump administration.
Bolton, who served as White House national security adviser during President Donald Trump’s first term and has since been a frequent critic of the president, appeared Friday morning for a re-arraignment in Greenbelt, Maryland, before Judge Theodore D. Chuang, an appointee of then-President Barack Obama.
Bolton pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized retention of national defense information out of the 18 he was initially charged with. He faces a prison sentence of up to 60 months and has agreed to pay $2.25 million, prosecutors said. He is set to be sentenced Oct. 28.
Bolton described the national security information that he retained as an electronic diary entry that he shared with two members of his family.
Bolton was originally indicted in October 2025, charged with eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and faced up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine per count, and three years of special release.
On Friday, Chuang reiterated the original counts in the case and asked if Bolton was only pleading guilty to count 12. “Yes, your honor,” Bolton said in court.
Bolton’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said last year that his client didn’t break the law.
“The underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years ago,” Lowell said. “These charges stem from portions of Amb. Bolton’s personal diaries over his 45-year career — records that are unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021.”
Last fall, Bolton was the third Trump critic to be indicted by the Justice Department, which also charged New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey in separate cases on charges of mortgage fraud and lying to Congress, respectively. After a federal judge dismissed the charges against James, the DOJ twice failed to re-indict her. That initial case against Comey was also dismissed, but he was charged again in April with threatening Trump’s life by posting a photo of seashells on Instagram. Both James and Comey, who will go on trial in October, have denied wrongdoing.
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