Trump Ex-Security Adviser John Bolton Pleads Guilty To Mishandling Classified Information

June 26 () — Former United States National Security Adviser, John Bolton, has pleaded guilty to unlawfully retaining classified national security information, becoming the latest senior American official to face criminal consequences over the mishandling of government secrets.
Bolton, who served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser between April 2018 and September 2019, entered the guilty plea on Friday before a federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, under a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice.
The plea resolves a case that began with an 18-count indictment filed in October 2025, accusing the veteran diplomat of unlawfully retaining and transmitting classified national defence information after leaving office.
In exchange for pleading guilty to a single count, Bolton agreed to pay a $2.25 million fine, forfeit his federal pension, complete up to 100 hours of community service and participate in intelligence debriefings. He also admitted responsibility for unlawfully keeping classified records in his possession.
Although the offence carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, Bolton’s fate will ultimately be decided by the court at a sentencing hearing fixed for October 28.
Appearing before the court, the 77-year-old expressed remorse, apologising for his actions as the judge accepted his guilty plea.
At the centre of the prosecution were more than 1,000 pages of classified notes and diary entries compiled during Bolton’s tenure in the White House. Prosecutors said he retained the documents after leaving office and shared portions of them with close family members while preparing his 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, which offered a behind-the-scenes account of the Trump administration.
While investigators acknowledged that none of the classified material was ultimately published in the book, they maintained that Bolton’s unauthorised possession of the records constituted a serious breach of laws governing the protection of national security information.
The investigation gathered additional urgency after Bolton’s personal email account was allegedly compromised by a hacker linked to Iran, raising concerns among U.S. intelligence officials that sensitive information could have been exposed to a foreign adversary.
Bolton, a longtime Republican foreign policy hawk, served in several administrations before joining Trump’s cabinet in 2018. His departure from the White House the following year was followed by an increasingly bitter public feud with the president, culminating in the publication of his memoir.