Former National Security Advisor John Bolton has pleaded guilty to a felony count of unlawfully retaining national defense information. The plea was made in federal court in Maryland, where a sentencing hearing has been set for October 28. Bolton, 77, faces up to 10 years in prison and has agreed to pay a $2.25 million fine. He had previously faced an 18-count indictment accusing him of transmitting and retaining highly sensitive, classified materials during and after his time in the Trump administration.
Bolton served as national security advisor from April 2018 until September 2019. His guilty plea comes after a lengthy investigation into his handling of classified materials. The investigation began in 2020, when Bolton used classified information to write his book, and was revived by the FBI after initially being halted. The FBI raided Bolton's home last summer, seizing classified materials that had been sent to family members from a private, unsecured email server.
The investigation into Bolton's handling of classified materials has revealed a pattern of reckless behavior. Documents previously released showed that Bolton stored classified information about weapons of mass destruction and the United Nations. The classified materials included travel memo documents with a "secret" label, confidential documents from the U.S. mission to the U.N., and classified documents related to strategic communications. The discovery of these materials has raised serious concerns about the potential risks to national security.
President Trump has responded to Bolton's guilty plea with a scathing attack. In a late-night post, Trump called Bolton "a very dumb, unbalanced, and unskilled former representative of the United States of America" who "only wanted to start trouble and wars." Trump also expressed hope that Bolton would be dealt with harshly, calling him "a terrible person" and "a lunatic." The attack is the latest in a long line of public feuds between Trump and Bolton, who have had a contentious relationship since Bolton's departure from the administration.
The investigation into Bolton's handling of classified materials has also shed light on the methods used by the US government to gather intelligence. It has been revealed that the government discovered Bolton's classified emails while gathering information from a foreign spy service. This has raised questions about the potential vulnerabilities of US national security and the need for stricter protocols to protect classified information.
