United States President, Donald Trump’s ex-national security adviser turned critic, John Bolton, has reached a plea agreement over mishandling sensitive national security information, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
Bolton is expected to plead guilty to one felony count of illegal retention of sensitive national security information, one of the sources said. He has also agreed to pay a fine exceeding $2 million.
The charge carries a possible prison sentence ranging from zero to 60 months.
The US Justice Department declined to comment and referred CNN to court records, which show that a hearing has been scheduled for June 26.
The plea agreement comes months after prosecutors in Maryland charged Bolton over allegations that he kept diary entries from Trump’s first White House administration at his residence.
Prosecutors alleged that Bolton shared “more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities” through his personal email account with two unauthorized individuals, identified by CNN as his wife and daughter.
However, the alleged transmission of classified information is not part of the charge he is expected to admit to.
His guilty plea will reportedly focus only on retaining sensitive national security information in his personal papers and will not cover allegations that he took home or distributed classified documents.
Bolton, who served for one year during Trump’s first administration, was initially charged with eight counts of transmitting national defence information and 10 counts of retaining national defence information.
Trump had repeatedly called for Bolton’s arrest following the release of his 2020 memoir, which sharply criticised the former president.
Trump claimed Bolton should face jail time because the book allegedly contained classified information.
Unlike some investigations involving Trump’s political rivals, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, Bolton’s case reportedly continued to receive support from career prosecutors and investigators.
Trump’s Justice Department first opened criminal and civil investigations into Bolton’s memoir in 2020, but the probe was closed within a year.
The FBI later reopened investigations during former President Joe Biden’s administration after suspected Iranian hackers breached Bolton’s email account.
Investigators reportedly discovered diary-style entries containing top-secret information from his time as national security adviser.
Court documents previously released also showed that FBI agents recovered classified materials during a search of Bolton’s Maryland home last summer.
Bolton’s agreement to pay a multimillion-dollar fine could help him avoid prison time, unlike several others convicted in similar classified information cases.
In 2023, a retired US Air Force officer received a three-year prison sentence for storing classified information at home, while a former FBI analyst was sentenced to nearly four years for retaining classified material in her residence.
Neither of those individuals was accused of sharing the classified documents.
Meanwhile, former Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was sentenced to 15 years in prison after leaking hundreds of classified documents online, including files detailing troop movements in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Other senior US officials have received lighter punishments in similar cases.
In 2005, former President Bill Clinton’s ex-national security adviser Sandy Berger pleaded guilty to removing classified documents from the National Archives and was fined $50,000.
Former CIA Director David Petraeus also pleaded guilty in 2015 to retaining classified information connected to diaries he shared with the co-author of his biography.
Although prosecutors recommended a $40,000 fine, the judge increased it to $100,000 and imposed two years’ probation.
Trump himself secured a major legal victory in a separate classified documents case after a federal judge dismissed charges accusing him of improperly storing classified records at his Florida residence following his presidency.
The judge ruled that the special counsel leading the investigation lacked the legal authority to bring the case because he had not been confirmed by the US Senate.
