John Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to one count of retaining classified national security information and will pay $2.25 million at a June 26 hearing in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland; the plea deal could allow him to avoid prison time, a person familiar with the arrangement said.
The plea agreement is expected to be submitted at the June 26 proceeding, which the docket describes as a "re-arraignment," and the deal will require the judge's approval; the single-count conviction carries a sentencing range of zero to 60 months and the judge will have up to 90 days after the arraignment to render a sentence, sources said.
A federal grand jury indicted Bolton in mid-October on eight counts of transmitting national defense information and 10 counts of retaining national defense information, and he pleaded not guilty after his arrest in October.
Prosecutors have alleged that from April 2018 to August 2025 Bolton shared more than 1,000 pages of "diary-like" entries with two relatives, that some entries included information classified as high as top secret and sensitive compartmented information, and that he printed, stored and kept digital copies of notes; court filings say he used a commercial non-governmental messaging app and personal email accounts such as AOL and Google to send material and that the FBI searched his Maryland home and his Washington office last August and seized electronic files.
Court documents allege some of the material concerned foreign adversaries and in certain cases revealed details about sources and methods used by the U.S. government, including one document related to a foreign adversary's plans for a missile launch and another that detailed U.S. government plans for covert action and included intelligence blaming an adversary for an attack; after sending one document, the filings say, Bolton wrote, "None of which we talk about!!!" and a relative replied, "Shhhhh."
The Justice Department alleged that at some point between 2019 and 2021 Bolton's email account was hacked by a "cyber actor" believed to be tied to Iran and that a representative for Bolton notified the government about the hack in 2021.
The plea deal does not allege any wrongdoing by Bolton in connection with the publication of his book, nor does it accuse him of taking home classified records or sharing them with the media or foreign adversaries; the arraignment and plea cover the notes he shared with relatives as opposed to information published in his book, "The Room Where It Happened," which was published in 2020.
A source close to Bolton said he changed his plea "for the good of the country," adding, "This was a very difficult decision for him. Most importantly, he is doing what leaders do and taking responsibility. He understands that if he went to trial what that would mean, which essentially would be the disclosure of many, many more classified documents that he would need to reveal to defend himself. And given the Ukraine and the Middle East, he didn't want to do that."
Bolton previously served as national security adviser to President Trump during his first term and later became a vocal critic; he also served in the Justice Department during President Reagan's administration, was a State Department point person on arms control during President George W. Bush's administration and was nominated by Bush to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations but failed to win Senate confirmation and resigned after serving through a recess appointment.
The Justice Department declined to comment, and Bolton could not immediately be reached for comment.