WASHINGTON — Former national security adviser John Bolton will plead guilty to mishandling classified information while working in President Trump’s first administration, CNN reported Thursday.
Bolton, 77, was indicted in October 2025 on 18 counts of illegally hoarding or sending sensitive information. The charges largely revolved around his best-selling 2020 tell-all “The Room Where It Happened,” in which Bolton gave readers a behind-the-scenes look at his time in the White House.
Reps for Bolton and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The FBI searched Bolton’s home in August 2025. Kyle Mazza – CNP for NY Post
Bolton was indicted by a grand jury on 18 counts of illegally hoarding or sending sensitive information. AP Photo/Rod LamkeyA hearing is scheduled for June 26 in Greenbelt, Md., federal court.
Bolton is expected to plead guilty to a single count of illegal retention of classified information, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, and pay a fine of more than $2 million, according to CNN.
The DOJ had previously attempted to stop Bolton’s book from getting published, and the first Trump administration briefly opened an investigation into the matter in 2020, but wrapped up that probe within about a year.
Prosecutors accused Bolton of sending more than a thousand pages of sensitive material from his personal email to two individuals without the necessary clearance, widely believed to be his wife and daughter.
John Bolton will plead guilty after being indicted in October. APAdditionally, Bolton was accused of knowingly sending secret information to outside contacts during his White House job, including “top secret” documents that exposed details about potential future US military operations.
The information Bolton sent to his family was exposed after his AOL account was infiltrated by Iranian-linked hackers, according to prosecutors. Bolton has constant security threats from Iran, since the January 2020 killing of notorious military commander Qassem Soleimani.
Bolton, who is famous for his hawkish foreign policy views and advocacy of regime change in Iran, worked as Trump’s national security adviser between April 2018 and his firing in September 2019.
John Bolton reportedly took a plea deal in the case on mishandling classified information. Andrew Thomas – CNP for NY PostBolton assured the feds after his firing that he didn’t have classified material in his possession, per court documents.
The feds raided Bolton’s DC office and Maryland home on Aug. 22, 2025, finding documents about weapons of mass destruction, internal government communications about strategy, secret travel memos, the US mission to the United Nations, and more, according to his indictment.
