Exclusive: John Bolton reaches plea deal over mishandling of sensitive national security information

By Katelyn Polantz, Kaitlan Collins, Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser-turned-adversary, has reached a plea deal over mishandling sensitive national security information, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

He intends to plead guilty to one felony count of illegal retention of sensitive national security information, according to one of the sources. He has also agreed to pay a more than $2 million fine, according to one of the sources.

A conviction on one count of illegal retention could come with a sentence between 0 and 60 months in prison.

The Justice Department declined to comment and referred CNN to the court docket, which indicates a hearing was set for June 26.

Watch Katelyn Polantz discuss Bolton’s plea deal:

The plea deal comes months after the top Trump foe was charged by prosecutors in Maryland for allegedly keeping diary entries from the first Trump White House in his home.

Prosecutors accused Bolton of sharing “more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities” through his personal email account with two unauthorized individuals, who CNN has reported are his wife and daughter. The alleged transmission of classified information isn’t part of the charges he expects to plead guilty to.

His guilty plea won’t include charges related to the allegation that Bolton took home or shared classified documents — only that he wrote down sensitive national security information as part of his personal papers.

Bolton, who served for one year in the first Trump administration, was originally charged with eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information.

Trump had long been calling for Bolton to be arrested over his 2020 memoir that was highly critical of the president, claiming Bolton should have gone to jail because classified information was contained in the book.

But unlike cases against Trump’s other perceived enemies, like FBI Director James Comey and the now-dismissed case against New York Attorney General Letitia James, Bolton’s case has maintained the support of career prosecutors and investigators, people briefed on the matter previously told CNN.

Trump’s first Justice Department opened criminal and civil investigations into the book in 2020, but it was closed within a year.

But the FBI opened a new inquiry into Bolton the next year, still during the Biden presidency, after his email was breached by suspected Iranian hackers, as investigators discovered “diary-like entries” containing top secret information from his time as national security advisor.

An FBI search of his home in Maryland last summer found documents marked as classified, according to court records previously released.

How Bolton’s deal compares to other cases

Bolton, in agreeing to the hefty, multimillion-dollar fine, could skirt prison time — a victory not always seen in cases over illegally retaining classified information.

In 2023, a retired Air Force officer was sentenced to three years in prison for storing classified information at his home. That same year, a former FBI analyst was sentenced to nearly four years behind bars for also retaining classified material at her home.

Investigators did not allege that either government employee ever shared the classified material with others.

Others convicted of sharing classified information — especially when prosecutors argue the information could compromise the location of military personnel — faced much longer sentences.

The former member of the Air National Guard, Jack Teixeira, then 22, was sentenced to 15 years after retaining and posting hundreds of pages of classified material on social media platforms — documents that included troop movements in the Ukraine-Russia war.

Others in high-powered positions have fared much better.

In 2005, President Bill Clinton’s former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was fined $50,000 after pleading guilty to smuggling classified documents from the National Archives — stashing them in his pants and socks — before hiding them under a construction trailer only to later cut some of them up with a pair of scissors.

The documents covered terror threats during the 2000 millennium celebration and had been requested by the 9/11 commission as they reviewed Clinton’s efforts to combat terrorism. Berger had been tapped by Clinton to liaison with the commission on the former president’s behalf.

Aspects of Bolton’s case are similar to those of former CIA director David Petraeus, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to one count of retaining classified information, which he allegedly did to share his diary and other material to the co-author of his biography.

The judge overseeing the case increased the Justice Department’s agreed-upon fine of $40,000 to $100,000 for Petraeus, whose sentence also included two years of probation.

The president has benefited from the most high-profile win after being accused of mishandling classified documents.

After being charged with storing boxes of classified material in his Florida residence when he left the presidency following his first term, a federal judge — who Trump himself appointed — tossed out the case, finding the special counsel appointed to the investigation did not have the authority to bring it in the first place because he was not Senate confirmed.

This story was updated to include more information, including details about the charge he intends to plead guilty to.

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