John Bolton, former National Security Adviser to President Donald Trump, has reportedly reached a plea deal in a federal classified documents case. He is expected to plead guilty to a single felony count of illegal retention of sensitive national security information. This agreement comes months after he was charged by prosecutors in Maryland for allegedly keeping diary entries from the first Trump White House in his home.
As part of the plea deal, Bolton will pay a fine exceeding $2 million, with some sources specifying it as $2.25 million. This charge carries a potential sentence of up to 60 months in prison, however, the plea deal reportedly recommends no jail time. A judge will still need to approve the agreement and decide on the final sentence at a separate hearing. The re-arraignment where Bolton is expected to submit his plea is scheduled for June 26.
The charges he is pleading guilty to relate specifically to sensitive national security information he wrote down as part of his personal papers, described as "diary-like entries." Notably, the plea deal does not include charges related to the alleged transmission of classified information to two unauthorized individuals (his wife and daughter) via personal email accounts, nor does it accuse him of taking home classified documents with classification markings. Bolton maintains that his 2020 memoir, "The Room Where It Happened," does not contain classified information, and he aims to take responsibility for his actions instead of continuing to fight the case, which he believes could risk releasing other classified information in his defense.
