Former Trump Adviser John Bolton to Plead Guilty to Mishandling Classified Information
A former ally of President Donald Trump has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, continuing the saga of one of the most contentious relationships in Washington, D.C. Read on for the details about the plea deal regarding classified information.
About Bolton's Plea and What Comes Next
Former Trump adviser John Bolton is reportedly going to plead guilty to charges of retaining national security information. According to sources, Bolton had detailed the security information in an electronic diary entry that he later shared with two members of his family.
Bolton is scheduled to be arraigned on June 26 as part of the plea deal with federal prosecutors. The judge will have up to 90 days to hand down a sentence. While it has not been confirmed, it is being reported that Bolton could face anywhere from probation to up to five years in prison. Bolton has also agreed to pay a total of $2.25 million in restitution, according to sources.
Bolton served briefly as national security adviser during President Trump's first stint in the Oval Office. He only served in this role for about a year before the president fired him over disagreements on how to handle Iran and North Korea. After leaving the Trump administration, Bolton became one of the president's fiercest critics. In addition to criticizing the president on how he approached Iran and North Korea, Bolton also slammed Trump for his foreign policy decisions regarding Russia.
CNN was the first major news outlet to report the plea deal. One of the sources noted that "there’s no allegation that he (Bolton) took home any classified documents or that he leaked any documents or that he shared any documents with foreign adversaries." However, sharing security information through an electronic diary is a violation of federal law.
Bolton initially pleaded not guilty to charges of mishandling classified information when he was arrested in October. A federal grand jury based in Maryland indicted him shortly after the arrest on eight counts of transmission of national defense information, as well as 10 counts of unlawful retention of that classified information.
One person close to Bolton said that he decided to change his plea for the good of the nation. The source noted that “This was a very difficult decision for him... Most importantly, he is doing what leaders do and taking responsibility. He understands that if he went to trial, what that would mean, which essentially would be the disclosure of many, many more classified documents that he would need to reveal to defend himself. And given the Ukraine and the Middle East, he didn’t want to do that.”
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has not commented publicly on Bolton's plea.
About the Contentious Relationship Between Trump and Bolton
Bolton was once one of Trump's staunchest allies. He is known for being hawkish on his war views, particularly in his unfettered support for U.S. involvement in Iran.
It did not take long for Trump and Bolton to clash over foreign policy approaches. After leaving the White House, Bolton wrote a highly critical memoir about his time working for the president called “The Room Where It Happened.”
The president also called for Bolton to be prosecuted in June 2020, adding more fuel to Bolton's condemnation of the Trump administration. In an interview at the time, Trump told Fox News that Bolton "released massive amounts of classified and confidential but classified information.....That's illegal, and you go to jail for that."
Trump further responded to Bolton's criticism in his memoir by calling him a "war-mongering fool" and a "lowlife dummy." The president also struck back at Bolton by canceling his Secret Service detail just a few days after he was sworn into office for a second time last year. The detail was removed despite Bolton being the target of a murder-for-hire operation launched by a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
For his part, Bolton maintains that he satisfied the legal obligations relating to the information in his book by obtaining a letter from an official with the National Security Council in 2020 verifying that the manuscript did not contain classified material.
Trump is no stranger to charges of mishandling classified documents. The president was also indicted in 2023 on these charges. However, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee serving in Florida, eventually threw out the charges the following year. Cannon defended the decision, stating that the special counsel appointed to the investigation did not have the power to bring the charges because he had not been confirmed by the Senate.
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