john bolton
© Getty ImagesJohn Bolton
John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, has reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors and is expected to plead guilty to one count of illegal retention of sensitive national security documents, according to CNN, citing three sources familiar with the matter.

Under the agreement, Bolton will pay a fine of more than $2 million. A single count of illegal retention carries a possible sentence of up to 60 months in prison.

A court hearing is currently scheduled for June 26.

Bolton was originally charged in Maryland 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.

FBI raid john bolton house classified files
© AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., FileFBI agents carry boxes from former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s office in Washington, Aug. 22, 2025.
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.

The FBI Baltimore Field Office led the investigation, with oversight from the Justice Department's National Security Division. The indictment outlines two core allegations:
  1. Eight counts of transmission of NDI under the Espionage Act (18 U.S.C. §793(d)),
  2. and Ten counts of unlawful retention of NDI under §793(e).
The investigation intensified after Bolton's email was breached by suspected Iranian hackers, during which investigators discovered the classified "diary-like entries."

Bolton served as Trump's National Security Adviser for one year before becoming a prominent critic of the president. Trump has repeatedly called for Bolton's arrest, particularly over his 2020 memoir that was highly critical of the administration and allegedly contained classified information.


Comment: Bolton book slamming Trump may have delighted the MSM, but seems to be driven by venom, not facts


While the first Trump Justice Department opened investigations into the book in 2020, those probes were closed within a year. A new investigation was launched the following year after the email breach.