Former National Security Adviser John R. Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to keeping classified information stemming from his work during the first Trump administration, news outlets report.
Mr. Bolton’s plea would end a criminal case opened in October 2025 that accused him of sharing classified information with family members in the form of diary entries that helped him write a 2020 memoir about his career in government.
Mr. Bolton, 77, was facing 10 counts of retention of national defense information and eight counts of transmission of national defense information before the plea agreement was made public. Reports indicate he will plead guilty to a single count of illegal retention of sensitive national security information.
The plea could let Mr. Bolton avoid federal prison, but he would still be on the hook for a $2.25 million fine.
A judge will ultimately decide whether Mr. Bolton spends time behind bars. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.
He is scheduled to return to federal court on June 26 for a rearraignment, a proceeding that typically signals a formal plea agreement.
Mr. Bolton worked as the White House national security adviser from 2018 to 2019 before he was fired by President Trump, who announced on social media in September 2019 that he had accepted Mr. Bolton’s resignation. Mr. Bolton has disputed that account, saying he offered to resign.
Mr. Bolton’s hawkish stance on Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan put him at odds with Mr. Trump, who was open to giving less aggressive forms of diplomacy a chance during his first term.
Yet it was Mr. Bolton’s memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” that spoiled any remaining goodwill shared between the two. The book portrayed Mr. Trump as a geopolitical novice who lacked a basic understanding of how the government works.
Since leaving the White House, Mr. Bolton has described Mr. Trump on television as a “useful idiot” and a “laughing fool.”
“He knows nothing of history. He’s not concerned about it. He doesn’t read briefing papers,” Mr. Bolton told German media outlet Deutsche Welle last summer.
Mr. Trump blasted his former adviser’s memoir. He said Mr. Bolton was a “lowlife dummy” and accused him of revealing classified information in the book.
Mr. Bolton’s criminal plea has been compared to that of former CIA Director David H. Petraeus, according to CNN, which first reported on Mr. Bolton’s deal, though Mr. Petraeus pleaded guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge.
Mr. Petraeus pleaded guilty in 2015 to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified materials he had shared with his mistress and biographer, Paula Broadwell.
Mr. Petraeus was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine and to serve two years of probation.
The FBI opened the case in 2021 after Mr. Bolton’s email was breached in a cyberattack linked to the Iranian regime, prosecutors said.
Officials soon discovered that he had allegedly shared his personal notes with his wife and daughter. Legal experts largely agreed that the classified documents case had merit.
Federal agents raided Mr. Bolton’s home in Montgomery County, Maryland, in August 2025 in connection with the classified documents investigation.
“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,” the indictment read.
Prosecutors said Mr. Bolton discussed intelligence about a foreign adversary planning a future missile launch, as well as intelligence about future attacks by a hostile group in another country.
The charging documents said Mr. Bolton referred to his two unidentified relatives as his “editors” and sent them multipage documents from his diary for them to clean up for him.
The expected plea is set to mark one of Mr. Trump’s few courtroom victories against his perceived political adversaries.
Prior indictments against former FBI Director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were dismissed in November 2025 after a federal judge ruled the prosecutor who brought the cases was unlawfully appointed. Two subsequent grand juries also declined to reindict Ms. James. The Justice Department has appealed the dismissals.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.