Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton pleads guilty to mishandling classified documents

Image source, Getty Images By Max Matza Published 26 June 2026, 15:21 BST Updated 7 minutes ago John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Donald Trump, has pleaded guilty to mishandling classified security information as part of notes he compiled for a book. Bolton, now a prominent critic of the US president, was indicted on 18 counts related to improper handling of classified material, and initially pleaded not guilty. On Friday, he admitted to a single charge of illegal retention of classified information. The documents he retained included diary entries containing national defence information, some of it classified at the top secret level. Bolton could face up to five years behind bars, though the plea deal may help him avoid time in prison, US media report. After the judge read the allegations against Bolton in court on Friday, including about sending diary entries with sensitive information to his family members, Bolton said the accusations were accurate, CBS News, the BBC's US partner, reported. "I did your honor," Bolton said about whether he committed the actions at hand today. He added he was "sorry for it." Bolton was fired from Trump's first administration in 2019. His 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, recounted his time working under Trump, portraying him as a president who was ill-informed about geopolitics. The White House filed a lawsuit to block publication of the book, arguing that it contained classified information and had not been properly vetted. A judge denied the request and the book was released days later. The US Department of Justice then opened an investigation into whether Bolton had mishandled classified information by disclosing parts of it in the book. He was also accused of transmitting some of the classified materials from his time as national security adviser to two relatives. Bolton has continued to be critical of the president in the time since. Trump, in return, has suggested that Bolton should go to jail and called him a "sleazebag". The indictment said that at one point a hacker gained access to Bolton's account, where documents were stored and sent an apparent threat to cause "the biggest scandal since Hillary [Clinton]'s emails were leaked". Bolton's indictment came on the heels of other high-profile criminal cases brought against Trump critics, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video can not be played Figure caption, But former federal prosecutors and other legal experts told the BBC that Bolton's case stood apart from prosecution of other Trump critics due to the evidence gathered by prosecutors. "The ambassador has admitted to what he has done," one of the people familiar with Bolton's plea deal told the BBC. Bolton also understood that if he continued to fight the case, "other classified information might have been released in his defence" and he did not want to "d