John Bolton, former Trump national security adviser, pleads guilty to retaining classified information

Greenbelt, Maryland — Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton pleaded guilty Friday to one count of retaining classified information and agreed to pay a $2.25 million fine.

Bolton, now a staunch critic of Mr. Trump, was indicted last year on 18 counts related to his handling of sensitive government information that prosecutors said he shared with two relatives in “diary-like” entries over a seven-year span for possible use in a book he was writing. He had pleaded not guilty in October.

According to the terms of the plea agreement read in court Friday, Bolton’s legal team and the Justice Department agreed to a prison term of no greater than 60 months in federal detention, as well as the fine. The parties said they also agreed that Bolton would debrief national security officials on information he had unlawfully retained and would perform 100 hours of community service to assist in government efforts to stop unlawful disclosure of classified information.

Bolton appeared before U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang, who approved the settlement Friday.

Justice Department attorney Tanner Kroeger read through a summary of the allegations against Bolton, and recapped his use of messaging apps and email to distribute the diary entries to two family members. 

Bolton said he agreed with the summary of facts, telling the judge that the government’s statement was “accurate.”

“I did your honor,” Bolton said when asked whether he had committed the actions at hand. He added he was “sorry for it.”

Bolton’s sentencing is set for October 28.

A federal grand jury indicted Bolton in mid-October on eight counts of transmitting national defense information and 10 counts of retaining national defense information. Prosecutors claimed that from April 2018 to August 2025, Bolton shared more than 1,000 pages about his daily activities while working in the White House for Mr. Trump with two unidentified relatives, some of which contained classified information. The indictment also alleged that Bolton kept documents, writings and notes related to the national defense, including information that was classified, in his home in Montgomery County, Maryland.

The Justice Department alleged in court papers that Bolton’s “diary-like” pages were typed transcriptions of handwritten notes that were then sent to his two relatives through a commercial, non-governmental messaging app. Prosecutors said Bolton also used personal email accounts, like those from AOL and Google, to email classified information to the family members.