WASHINGTON — John Bolton, who served as President Trump's national security adviser during the first term and later became one of his most persistent Republican critics, has agreed to plead guilty to a single felony count of unlawfully retaining national defense information, settling a case that began with FBI raids on his Maryland home and Washington office last year.
Under the agreement with federal prosecutors, Bolton will be arraigned again on June 26, and the judge will have up to 90 days to impose a sentence that could range from probation to 60 months in prison, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. Bolton has also agreed to pay $2.25 million in restitution. The deal removes from the federal docket one of the highest-profile prosecutions of a former Trump aide.
The charges
A federal grand jury in Maryland indicted Bolton in October on eight counts of transmitting national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention. He pleaded not guilty at the time. Prosecutors have said the materials in question were diary-like notes that Bolton planned to draw on for a memoir, stored at his home and Washington office.
One source close to Bolton told NBC News that the conduct at issue involved an electronic diary entry that Bolton shared with two family members. “So there’s no allegation that he took home any classified documents or that he leaked any documents or that he shared any documents with foreign adversaries,” the source said.
How the case began
The case burst into public view when FBI agents searched Bolton's Maryland residence and his Washington office, PBS NewsHour reported. Officials said investigators believed he had kept sensitive notes intended for a future book. If a judge approves the plea, Bolton could face anywhere from no prison time to up to five years in custody, plus more than $2 million in fines, PBS said. CBS News, which also confirmed the agreement through unidentified sources, reported that Bolton had agreed to pay more than $2 million in fines.
A political back-and-forth
Bolton, a fixture of Republican foreign policy circles known for his hawkish views and his early support for the Iraq war, served roughly a year in Trump's first administration before he was fired over disputes about how to handle Iran and North Korea. He went on to write “The Room Where It Happened,” a memoir that drew Trump's anger.
In June 2020, Trump publicly called for Bolton to be prosecuted, telling Fox News that the former adviser “released massive amounts of classified and confidential but classified information.” Bolton has maintained he met his legal obligations and that a National Security Council official cleared the book in 2020 as containing no classified material.
Days after returning to the White House last year, Trump canceled Bolton's Secret Service detail, even though Bolton had been the target of an alleged murder-for-hire scheme tied to a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, NBC News reported.
The Trump comparison
The plea lands against a familiar legal backdrop. Trump was himself indicted in 2023 on charges of mishandling classified documents after leaving office, but U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed those charges in 2024. The Bolton case is now poised to end without a trial that would have aired classified material in open court.
A person close to Bolton told NBC News that the former adviser changed his plea “for the good of the country,” saying a trial would have forced the disclosure of additional classified documents at a moment when the United States is engaged in operations tied to the Iran war and the Middle East.
What's absent
Neither the Justice Department nor the White House had publicly commented on the agreement as of the network reports cited here, and right-leaning outlets were not represented in the day's wire coverage. The terms described are sourced to people familiar with the matter rather than to court filings. Bolton is scheduled to be arraigned again June 26, when the formal plea is expected to be entered and the sentencing clock will begin to run.