John Bolton Pleaded Guilty to One Count of Retaining National Defense Information. The Deal Caps His Prison Exposure at Five Years.

John Bolton pleaded guilty Friday to one count of willfully retaining national defense information, ending the case the Justice Department brought against him last fall over classified material he kept in personal diaries. He entered the plea in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland. It resolves all 18 counts of the indictment, caps the prison time prosecutors will seek at five years, and requires him to pay a $2.25 million fine.

When Judge Theodore D. Chuang asked whether he was guilty, Bolton answered, "I am, your honor, and I'm sorry for it." Chuang set sentencing for October 28.

What he pleaded to

Bolton, 77, of Bethesda, Maryland, pleaded to a single felony count of willful retention of national defense information. The Justice Department charged the count under the Espionage Act. It carries a statutory maximum of 10 years; under the plea agreement, the government will not ask for more than 60 months.

Bolton served as national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019. According to court documents and the Justice Department, he copied classified information he learned on the job into documents he called "diary" entries about his daily activities. The department said the entries contained material classified up to Top Secret, along with Sensitive Compartmented Information, and described the contents as foreign military operation plans, covert U.S. government actions in other countries, and intelligence on foreign leaders drawn from human sources and intercepted communications.

He sent the documents to two family members who were not cleared to receive them, the department said, using a personal email account and a messaging app that were not approved for classified material. He also kept copies at his home in Bethesda, where they were not permitted to be stored.

The hacked account

After Bolton left office in September 2019, his personal email account was hacked by someone the Justice Department said it believes was connected to Iran. The department said Bolton reported the hack to law enforcement but did not tell investigators, or anyone else in the government, that the account held national defense information.

A federal grand jury in Maryland indicted Bolton on the 18 counts in October 2025.

The terms of the deal

What each side said

Hayden O'Byrne, the acting deputy assistant attorney general for the National Security Division, said in a statement that Bolton "held a position of extraordinary public trust as the country's top National Security Advisor, and he betrayed that trust, jeopardizing our nation's security." Kelly O'Hayes, the U.S. attorney for Maryland, said no one is above the law and that anyone who endangers national security "will be brought to justice."

Bolton's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that Bolton "took responsibility for a mistake he made, thereby saving the government resources to pursue a case that could expose additional sensitive information." Lowell drew a contrast with the president, saying Bolton "kept a record to preserve history" while "Donald Trump kept secrets to serve himself."

Bolton was national security adviser in Trump's first term and became one of the president's sharpest public critics after he left the administration. The indictment came in October 2025, during Trump's second term. Bolton had said before Friday that he considered the prosecution political. The plea ends the case before trial.