Former White House national security adviser John Bolton in Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S., October 17, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Milli
On Friday morning, June 26, former National Security Adviser John Bolton entered a guilty plea to illegally retaining classified information related to his work in the first Trump administration. But Bolton's attorney, that same morning, gave a scathing opinion of the indictment.
Lowell, according to journalist Scott MacFarlane, said, in his statement, "Ambassador Bolton did what real leaders do. He took responsibility for a mistake he made, thereby saving the government resources to pursue a case that could expose additional sensitive information. By contrast, President Trump thumbed his nose at the classified information laws, took actual classified documents to his Florida mansion, interfered with the investigation of that conduct, and has never accepted any accountability for his conduct. Ambassador Bolton, whose offense was only keeping a diary which contained classified information, kept a record to preserve history, but Donald Trump kept secrets to serve himself."
According to NBC News reporters Owen Hayes and Rebecca Shabad, Bolton "faces a prison sentence of up to 60 months and has agreed to pay $2.25 million, prosecutors said. He is set to be sentenced October 28."
Hayes and Shabad note, "Bolton described the national security information that he retained as an electronic diary entry that he shared with two members of his family. Bolton was originally indicted in October 2025, charged with eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and faced up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine per count, and three years of special release."
The NBC News reporters point out that in 2025, Lowell said of the case against Bolton, "The underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years ago. These charges stem from portions of Amb. Bolton's personal diaries over his 45-year career — records that are unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021."
Hayes and Shabad report, "Last fall, Bolton was the third Trump critic to be indicted by the Justice Department, which also charged New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey in separate cases on charges of mortgage fraud and lying to Congress, respectively. After a federal judge dismissed the charges against James, the DOJ twice failed to re-indict her."
