Former National Security Advisor John Bolton, a former Trump ally that turned into one of his most relentless critics, pleaded guilty to a felony on Friday.
Bolton, 77, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, to a single felony count of unlawfully retaining national defense information.
Judge Theodore D. Chuang, an Obama appointee, asked Bolton directly if he was admitting to being a felon.
“I am, your honor,” Bolton said. “And I’m sorry for it.”
The plea resolves an 18-count indictment handed down by a federal grand jury last October, which had originally charged Bolton with eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention.
Under the deal, prosecutors will not to seek more than five years in prison, and Bolton agreed to forfeit $2.25 million of revenue he made from his book, and serve 100 hours of community service and loses all federal retirement pay tied to his government service.
Sentencing is set for October 28. Chuang will have final say over how much, if any, prison time Bolton actually serves.
The classified document Bolton unlawfully possessed contained “intelligence about an adversary’s knowledge of planned US actions.” The FBI’s search of Bolton’s materials also found classified documents on weapons of mass destruction, internal government strategy communications, secret travel memos, and matters tied to the U.S. mission to the United Nations.
During Bolton’s entire 17-month tenure as national security adviser, he sent more than 1,000 pages of classified information to his wife and daughter, neither of whom held a security clearance, using a personal AOL email account. He later illegally kept classified material at his Maryland home, where FBI agents executed a search last year.
The case took an additional national security turn after Bolton left office. Hackers linked to Iran breached his personal email account and gained access to the classified material he had stored there — then attempted to extort him over it, taunting him online as “Mr. Mustache” before warning his staff the leak “could be the biggest scandal since Hillary’s emails.”
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Hayden O’Byrne said Bolton’s guilty plea as a warning to everyone.
“Today’s plea should be a warning to anyone at any level of government that if you leak America’s secrets or if you mishandle them, the United States Department of Justice, National Security Division, and our U.S. Attorney partners will be there to prosecute you,” O’Byrne said.