John Bolton Pleads Guilty to Illegally Retaining Classified Information

Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton pleaded guilty on June 26 to illegally retaining classified information.

Bolton entered the plea in federal court in Maryland. He pleaded guilty to a single count of illegally retaining classified information. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 28 by U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang.

While Bolton may be able to avoid time behind bars, that decision will be up to Chuang.

Under the plea agreement, prosecutors recommend that any prison sentence not exceed five years, although the judge is not required to follow that recommendation. If Chuang imposes a prison term longer than five years or a fine exceeding $2.25 million, Bolton has the option to withdraw his guilty plea.

Bolton, 77, was indicted on Oct. 16, 2025, for alleged unauthorized sharing and retention of classified information. He was charged with 18 counts under the Espionage Act, according to the federal indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

“From on or about April 9, 2018, through at least on or about August 22, 2025, Bolton abused his position as National Security Advisor by sharing more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities as the National Security Advisor—including information relating to the national defense which was classified up to the TOP SECRET/SCI level—with two unauthorized individuals,” federal prosecutors allege in the indictment.

Bolton’s attorney Abbe Lowell said these charges stem from portions of 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.

“Like many public officials throughout history, [Ambassador] Bolton kept diaries—that is not a crime,” Lowell said.

The indictment centers on two unnamed individuals who were allegedly related to Bolton and received classified information from him. According to the charges, while serving as national security adviser, Bolton regularly shared “diary-like entries” with these individuals. Prosecutors claim these entries contained information classified as high as the “TOP SECRET/SCI” level.

Bolton faces 18 charges in total, which fall into two main categories: unlawfully retaining national defense information and improperly transmitting national defense information.

The documents at the center of the case allegedly contained highly classified intelligence, including information gathered from foreign governments and details about covert operations carried out by the U.S. government.

According to the indictment, one Top Secret document included intelligence about a foreign adversary’s planned future missile launch, covert activities in another country involving sensitive diplomatic matters, and the intelligence sources and methods used to obtain human intelligence.

Another document allegedly kept by Bolton described intelligence sources and collection methods used to obtain information from a foreign adversary, along with details of a U.S. covert operation conducted overseas, according to the indictment.

During his time as national security adviser, Bolton maintained a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) in his home that was authorized for handling and storing classified materials. However, the indictment states that he was never authorized to keep or transmit classified information through unclassified systems.

Prosecutors also allege that Bolton used his personal, nongovernmental email accounts to send top secret information. The indictment further states that he lacked authorization to store or transmit the classified information through his personal devices or accounts. It also alleges that the two individuals who received the information were not authorized to access or retain classified material.

The charges followed a search in September 2025 of Bolton’s home in Bethesda, Maryland, where investigators recovered documents and other materials while looking for evidence of a crime, according to court records.

In response, Bolton’s attorney Lowell said the seized materials consisted of routine records from Bolton’s four decades of public service to the United States.

Bolton served as national security adviser during President Donald Trump’s first term and was ambassador to the United Nations under former President George W. Bush. Since leaving the White House, Bolton and Trump have been critical of one another.

Sam Dorman and Zachary Steiber contributed to this report.