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Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton pleads guilty to retaining national security information
NBC News • • general
Key Points:
- Former national security adviser John Bolton pleaded guilty to one count of retaining national security information related to his service during the first Trump administration.
- Bolton faces up to 60 months in prison and has agreed to pay $2.25 million, with sentencing scheduled for October 28.
- The information Bolton retained was described as an electronic diary entry shared with two family members.
- Originally indicted in October 2025 on multiple counts of transmission and retention of national defense information, Bolton had pleaded not guilty and faced severe penalties.
- Bolton’s lawyer maintained that the records were unclassified personal diaries shared only with family and known to the FBI since 2021, asserting that no laws were broken.
