Policy

In the Classified Documents Case, Bolton Reaches a Plea Agreement


John Bolton, former National Security Adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, has reached an agreement in the investigation concerning the mishandling of sensitive documents.

According to three sources familiar with the matter cited by CNN, Bolton is expected to plead guilty in a case involving the improper handling of classified documents.

One source stated that Bolton intends to plead guilty to a single criminal charge related to the unlawful retention of sensitive national security documents. Another source indicated that he has also agreed to pay a fine exceeding two million dollars.

Bolton may avoid imprisonment altogether, although the court could sentence him to as much as sixty months in prison. Court records show that a hearing has been scheduled for June 26. The Department of Justice declined to comment on the matter.

The plea agreement comes months after prosecutors in the state of Maryland charged the former Trump adviser, who later became one of the president’s most prominent critics, with allegedly retaining White House memoranda from Trump’s first term at his residence.

Prosecutors accused Bolton of sharing “more than one thousand pages of information concerning his daily activities” through his personal email account with two individuals who were not authorized to receive such information.

CNN reported that the individuals were his wife and daughter. However, the alleged transfer of classified information is not part of the charges to which Bolton is expected to plead guilty.

Bolton, who served for one year in the first Trump administration, faces eight counts of transmitting national security information and ten counts of unlawfully retaining such information.

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Trump has long called for Bolton’s arrest because of his 2020 memoir, in which he sharply criticized the U.S. president. Trump argued that Bolton should have been imprisoned because the memoir allegedly contained classified information.

However, unlike other cases brought against Trump’s political opponents, including former FBI Director James Comey and the case later dismissed against New York Attorney General Letitia James, the Bolton case continued to receive support from experienced prosecutors and investigators, according to sources previously cited by CNN.

The Department of Justice opened criminal and civil investigations into Bolton’s memoir in 2020 during Trump’s first term, but those investigations were closed within a year.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation launched a new investigation into Bolton the following year during the administration of Joe Biden after his email account was allegedly hacked by suspected Iranian cyber operatives. Investigators reportedly discovered “personal notes” containing highly classified information from his time serving as National Security Adviser.

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