John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of retaining national security information related to his work during the first Trump administration.
Bolton appeared Friday morning for a re-arraignment in Greenbelt, Maryland before Obama-appointed judge Theodore D. Chuang. He faces a prison sentence of up to 60 months and has agreed to pay $2.25 million, according to prosecutors. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 28.
Bolton was originally charged in October of 2025 with eight counts of transmission of national defense information and ten counts of retention of national defense information. The charges centered on diary-like entries from his time in the Trump White House that were allegedly kept at his residence.
Prosecutors accused him of sharing more than 1,000 pages of information through his personal email with two unauthorized individuals – reportedly his wife and daughter – though these transmission allegations are not part of the plea deal.
Related: Eyebrow-Raising Details Emerge From FBI Raid On John Bolton’s Home
According to the indictment, Bolton used personal email and messaging accounts to transmit Top Secret intelligence about foreign adversaries, future attacks, and U.S. foreign-policy relations. He also kept classified files at his home, including sensitive intelligence about foreign leaders and U.S. intelligence sources.
Bolton described the national security information as an ‘electronic diary’ that he shared with two members of his family.
His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said last year that Bolton was innocent.
“The underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years ago,” he 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.”
16 Responses
Why wouldn’t he plead guilty? The system is engineered to cushion its own. When you’re plugged into a political machinery that absorbs fallout for insiders, guilt becomes a paperwork formality. The institutions that hammer regular people into dust suddenly turn into soft foam padding the moment someone with connections steps inside.
Vigilante justice is all WE THE PEOPLE have left!!
This is a rare conviction of a deep state criminal, but Trump has failed badly at justice. He’s not the man he pretended to be. He got this guy convicted for good reason but moreso as a personal vendetta.
So true and this proves it, because not a fucking thing will be done to this piece of shit.
Hang this war criminal. Hang the bastard!
Fucking right brother, but they won’t do it. So, WE THE PEOPLE will have to take care of business sooner than later.
What in the hell? Just for retaining? Didn’t this old farse share the INTEL IN HIS BOOK?!?!?!
FUCK THE US GOVERNMENT.
If a citizen had even 1 peice of classified documents they would be …..taken out……
I will give you some classified information, the world is flat and there are 20 plus continents beyond Antarctica.
I wonder what fraction $2.25 million could be of all the cash Bolton has grifted or looted from the taxpayer over the years. A very small percentage, I would wager. I hope he does hard time.
OK now it’s time for trump who did a lot more than Bolton by stealing those files and stashing them around his home. He then gave out classified military info on a plane but not to his wife to foreigners, susie wiles is one of the foreign agents on board the rest of this treason is classified
Well maybe susie wiles is not a foreign agent but she should not be seeing classified military maps because she is a criminal lobbyist who has been subpoenaed in a federal criminal case which trump is trying to shut down because it will expose her and her controversial lobbyist list and republican congressman David Rivera. “This kind of entanglement shows exactly why a person with Wiles’ lengthy record of controversial corporate and foreign lobbying clients is too conflicted to be running the White House,” – Jon Golinger Public Citizen Democracy Advocate
Look how the babbling noisemaker lacks the basic ability to analyze.
First, Wiles is a foreign agent, then, Wiles is not.
Hey nonsense emitter, Wiles was a registered foreign agent of at least Oman, which makes you incorrect.
Hey nonsense emitter, this story has NOTHING to do with Wiles. When you evade the actual story, you prove you are a propagandist. Go start your own site and rant all you want, no one will come.
Leftist propagandist, you lack both basic reasoning ability and honesty.
Notice folks how the noisemakers swarm in to distract from and discredit the conviction of Criminal Bolton. The propaganda tactic is quite obvious.
John Bolton is another wonderful pick by the Orange Clown.
You would be a good pick for nothing useful, repetitive leftist propagandist.
Hey dullard, Trump ignored all recommendations from criminal Bolton, then fired him.
Recall. dullard, if that is possible, Trump’s first term had no new wars.
You should stop picking the puss sores from you ass before you type on a public library computer.