John Bolton pleads guilty to mishandling classified information in US federal court

John Bolton, the former US National Security Adviser under Donald Trump’s first term and a notorious warmongering neoconservative, has pleaded guilty to one count of illegally retaining national security information as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.

The 77-year-old Bolton entered the plea during a court hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Friday.

He admitted to mishandling sensitive materials, specifically an electronic diary entry that he shared with two family members living in his home.

Under the agreement, prosecutors will recommend a sentence of no more than five years in prison.

Bolton faces a maximum penalty of five years behind bars, up to three years of supervised release, and has agreed to pay a $2.25 million fine.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 28.

Bolton was initially indicted in 2025 on multiple serious charges related to the transmission and retention of classified national defense information.

Court documents revealed that he “abused his position” as national security adviser by sharing more than a thousand pages of sensitive information about his daily activities with relatives.

Trump's former advisor Bolton arrives home as FBI raids his house

Footage shows John Bolton returning to his residence, while the FBI conducts a search of his home.

According to the indictment, Bolton recorded handwritten notes from his time in office, then sent diary-style entries to family members via a commercial messaging application.

He also transmitted other top-secret materials using his personal email accounts hosted by AOL and Google. The case gained further attention after Bolton publicly criticized the use of the Signal messaging app by US War Secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior Trump administration officials to discuss a planned military attack in the Persian Gulf region.

Bolton, once a key architect of aggressive US policies in the region, including his vocal support for the Zionist regime’s wars and pressure for confrontation with Iran, later became a fierce critic of Trump.

He is among several prominent Trump opponents now facing criminal charges in the United States.

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