Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, John Bolton, pleaded guilty on Friday to a felony count of unlawfully retaining national defense information.

The plea was made in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, before U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang.

Bolton, 77, had faced an 18-count indictment that had accused him of both transmitting and retaining highly sensitive, classified materials during and after his time in the Trump administration.

Bolton served as national security advisor from April 2018 until September 2019.

Prosecutors alleged that while in that role, he created extensive “diary-like entries” and notes detailing his daily activities, meetings with foreign leaders, intelligence briefings, and sensitive policy discussions. He then transmitted more than 1,000 pages of this material, some classified up to the Top Secret/SCI level, via his personal AOL email account and messaging applications to two unauthorized individuals.

The indictment added that Bolton unlawfully retained classified national defense information at his home in Bethesda, Maryland, and his Washington, D.C., office.

These documents reportedly included intelligence on foreign adversaries, sources and methods, and other sensitive matters related to weapons of mass destruction and U.S. strategy.

The case gained significant momentum after Bolton’s personal AOL email account was hacked in July 2021 by actors linked to Iran. The breach exposed the diary-style notes he had sent to family members.

Federal investigators later determined that the compromised emails contained classified national defense information.

In August, FBI agents executed search warrants at Bolton’s Bethesda home and his D.C. office.

Agents seized classified documents, electronic devices, folders labeled “Trump I–IV,” and a binder titled “Statements and Reflections to Allied Strikes.”

The materials recovered included documents marked as secret, confidential, and classified, some of which referenced weapons of mass destruction and internal government communications.

A federal grand jury returned the 18-count indictment in October.

It charged Bolton with eight counts of transmitting national defense information and ten counts of unlawfully retaining national defense information under the Espionage Act.

According to the Department of Justice, the indictment alleged that Bolton “illegally transmitted NDI by using personal email and messaging application accounts to send sensitive documents classified as high as Top Secret” and that he “illegally retained NDI documents within his home,” including intelligence on an adversary’s leaders and information revealing sources and collections methods.

“There is one tier of justice for all Americans,” said then-Attorney General Pam Bondi at the time. “Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said, “The FBI’s investigation revealed that John Bolton allegedly transmitted top secret information using personal online accounts and retained said documents in his house in direct violation of federal law. The case was based on meticulous work from dedicated career professionals at the FBI who followed the facts without fear or favor. Weaponization of justice will not be tolerated, and this FBI will stop at nothing to bring to justice anyone who threatens our national security.”

John Bolton’s attorney Abbe Lowell on Bolton’s guilty plea:

“Ambassador Bolton did what real leaders do. He took responsibility for a mistake he made, thereby saving the government resources to pursue a case that could expose additional sensitive information. By contrast,…

— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) June 26, 2026

John Bolton’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, issued a statement after the plea and used the occasion to trash President Donald Trump.

The statement read in full:

“Ambassador Bolton did what real leaders do. He took responsibility for a mistake he made, thereby saving the government resources to pursue a case that could expose additional sensitive information. By contrast, President Trump thumbed his nose at the classified information laws, took actual classified documents to his Florida mansion, interfered with the investigation of that conduct, and has never accepted any accountability for his conduct. Ambassador Bolton, whose offense was only keeping a diary which contained classified information, kept a record to preserve history, but Donald Trump kept secrets to serve himself.”

If convicted on all counts, Bolton faced a maximum of 10 years in prison per count.

Under the plea agreement reached with prosecutors, he admitted guilt to only one count of unlawful retention of national defense information. The transmission charges were dropped as part of the deal.

Bolton agreed to pay a fine of more than $2 million. He now faces up to 10 years in prison on the single count, though the actual sentence will be determined by the judge after considering sentencing guidelines and other factors.

Sentencing is scheduled for October.

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