Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton expected to plead guilty to retaining national security information

Former national security adviser John Bolton is expected to plead guilty in federal court on Friday to one count of retaining national security information.

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Bolton, who served as White House national security adviser during President Donald Trump’s first term and has since been a frequent critic of the president, will appear Friday morning for a re-arraignment in Greenbelt, Maryland.

NBC News reported in early June that Bolton planned to plead guilty in the case. Two sources familiar with the matter said at the time that Bolton faces a potential sentence of probation to 60 months in prison, and according to one of the sources, he also agreed to pay $2.25 million in restitution. CNN was first to report the plea deal.

Bolton described the national security information that he retained as an electronic diary entry that he shared with two members of his family.

Judge Theodore D. Chuang, an appointee of then-President Barack Obama, will have up to 90 days to sentence him.

Bolton was originally indicted in October 2025 , charged with eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges and faced up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine per count, and three years of special release.

Bolton’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said at the time that his client didn’t break the law.

“The underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years ago,” Lowell said. “These charges stem from portions of Amb. Bolton’s personal diaries over his 45-year career — records that are unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021.”

Last fall, Bolton was the third Trump critic to be indicted by the Department of Justice, which also charged New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey in separate cases on charges of mortgage fraud and lying to Congress, respectively. After a federal judge dismissed the charges against James, the DOJ twice failed to re-indict her . That initial case against Comey was also dismissed, but he was charged again in April with threatening Trump’s life by posting a photo of seashells on Instagram . Both James and Comey, who will go on trial in October , have denied wrongdoing.