President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, has pleaded guilty to mishandling classified security information as part of a memo he edited for a book.
Bolton, a prominent critic of the current US president, was indicted on 18 counts related to the improper handling of classified material and initially pleaded not guilty.
On Friday he pleaded guilty to a single charge of unlawfully retaining classified information. The documents he kept included diary entries containing national defense information, some of which was classified at top secret level.
Bolton could face up to five years in prison and agreed to pay a $2.25 million (£1.7 million) fine, prosecutors said.
Bolton will also brief national security officials on classified information he illegally stored and perform 100 hours of community service, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reported.
After a judge read the charges against Bolton in court Friday, including that he sent a diary containing sensitive information to his family, Bolton said the accusations were accurate.
Asked whether he committed the act at hand today, Bolton said, “I did your honor.” He then added, “I’m sorry.”
He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 28, according to U.S. media reports.
President Trump posted on Truth Social, “I hope he is dealt with harshly.”
After the hearing, U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes told reporters that Bolton knows how to handle classified information and with whom he may share it.
“He also knew the harm to national security that could result from mishandling sensitive information,” she said. “Nevertheless, as Prime Minister Bolton has just acknowledged, he has broken the law and put our national security at serious risk.”
Bolton’s attorney, Abe Lowell, said in a statement that his client did “what true leaders do.”
“He took responsibility for the mistakes he made, which saved government resources from pursuing cases that could expose additional sensitive information,” Lowell said. “President Trump, on the other hand, ignored classified information laws, took actual classified documents to his Florida mansion, obstructed the investigation into those actions, and has never acknowledged any responsibility for his actions.”
Trump was indicted in 2023 on charges of illegally storing classified defense information, but the case was later dismissed after he was re-elected.
Bolton was fired during Trump’s first administration in 2019. His 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” recalled his time working under Trump and portrayed him as a president who didn’t know much about geopolitics.
The White House sued to block publication of the book on the grounds that it contained classified information and was not properly researched. The judge denied the request and the book was released a few days later.
The U.S. Department of Justice subsequently launched an investigation into whether Bolton mishandled some of the classified information by revealing it in the book.
He was also accused of passing on some classified material from his time as national security adviser to two of his relatives.
Bolton has continued to criticize the president since then. In response, President Trump suggested that Bolton should be sent to prison and called him a ‘sleazebag’.
The indictment alleges that at one point, hackers accessed Bolton’s account where documents were stored and sent explicit threats intended to cause “the biggest scandal since Hillary Clinton’s emails were leaked.”
Bolton’s indictment follows other high-profile criminal cases filed against Trump critics, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
