(GREENBELT, Md.) — President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton pleaded guilty Friday to one count of illegal retention of national security information.
Bolton entered his plea to the single felony count in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, before U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang.
The guilty plea makes Bolton thus far the only successfully prosecuted case in Trump’s campaign of retribution against those he perceives to be his political enemies.
Bolton had faced 18 counts of unlawful transmission and retention of national defense information for allegedly sharing notes with his wife and daughter — some of which contained information classified as high as Top Secret — during his time serving in the first Trump administration.
Bolton changed his plea to guilty with respect to count 12 of his indictment.
Sitting in court Friday alongside his attorney Abbe Lowell, Bolton answered a series of questions from Judge Chuang acknowledging his rights and his voluntary decision to plead guilty to the charge, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
When asked if he was pleading guilty because he is, in fact, guilty, Bolton responded to Chuang: “I am, your honor, I’m sorry for it.”
Judge Chuang set Bolton’s sentencing hearing for Oct. 28.
According to terms of the plea agreement outlined by prosecutors in court, the government will not seek a sentence of more than 60 months and Bolton has agreed to forfeit approximately $2.2 million to resolve the case.
Judge Chuang will ultimately have final discretion over how much time Bolton could serve, if any.
Bolton also agreed to serve 100 hours of community service and is forfeiting any retirement pay tied to his time in federal service.
The count he pleaded guilty to involves keeping classified national security information in diaries, according to sources. Bolton was expected to maintain that he did not take documents with classification markings out of government offices.
“Mr. Bolton knew how to handle classified information, where it should be stored, how it should be stored, and with whom he could share that information,” U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes told reporters outside court following Bolton’s guilty plea. “He also knew the damage to national security that could be caused by mishandling that sensitive information. Nevertheless, as Mr. Bolton just admitted, he put our national security at grave risk in violation of the law.”
Hayes said the specific count Bolton pleaded guilty to involved Bolton’s unlawful retention of intelligence about an adversary’s plans for an attack conducted against U.S. forces in another country.
“It contained human intelligence using sensitive sources and methods, and it discussed a covert action program,” Hayes said.
Bolton, who was national security adviser for part of the first Trump administration, was indicted by a grand jury in October 2025 on charges that he allegedly unlawfully transmitted and retained classified documents.
The indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Maryland, charged Bolton with eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information as well as 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information.
Prosecutors had accused Bolton of using a non-government personal email account and messaging application to transmit to two unauthorized family members at least eight documents that contained information classified at levels ranging from “secret” to “top secret.”
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