US politics liveUS politics Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton pleads guilty in classified information case – US politics live Bolton pleads guilty to charges that he unlawfully retained sensitive national security information in agreement that includes $2.25m fine Former Trump adviser John Bolton pleads guilty Sign up for the Breaking News US email LIVE Updated 4m ago Marina Dunbar (now); Lucy Campbell and Aneesa Ahmed (earlier) Fri 26 Jun 2026 17.25 BSTFirst published on Fri 26 Jun 2026 13.07 BST Share Key events 2h ago Trump forced to drain the pool swamp – podcast 2h ago Ex-Trump adviser turned critic John Bolton pleads guilty in classified information case 3h ago Johnson says he will send housing bill to Trump's desk 4h ago Alarm over ‘extreme’ sentences for anti-ICE protesters convicted of terrorism 4h ago Opening summary John Bolton in Maryland in October 2025.
Photograph: Alex Kent/Getty Images John Bolton in Maryland in October 2025.
Photograph: Alex Kent/Getty Images From 2h ago John Bolton, who served as Donald Trump’s national security adviser in his first administration before becoming an outspoken critic, has pleaded guilty in a federal court hearing in Maryland to one count of retaining classified national security information in a case that could send him to prison for up to five years.
The charge is specifically related to diary entries about his work during Trump’s first term that he compiled for his memoir, which was deeply critical of Trump.
Bolton was accused of transmitting some of these materials to two relatives, whom multiple outlets have reported were his wife and daughter.
He initially pleaded not guilty to an 18-count indictment in October last year, but under a plea deal with the US justice department, Bolton agreed to plead guilty to the single count of retaining the classified information in diary-like entries and also to pay a fine of over $2m.
Had he gone to trial and lost, Bolton could have faced decades of incarceration.
A trial also could have dragged significant classified information into the public realm in order for Bolton to defend himself, which was cited as another reason he took the deal.
Bolton is expected to argue for no prison time but the DoJ may seek to incarcerate him, setting up a showdown at his sentencing, which is due to take place at a later date.
Key events 2h ago Trump forced to drain the pool swamp – podcast 2h ago Ex-Trump adviser turned critic John Bolton pleads guilty in classified information case 3h ago Johnson says he will send housing bill to Trump's desk 4h ago Alarm over ‘extreme’ sentences for anti-ICE protesters convicted of terrorism 4h ago Opening summary Donald Trump is blaming Iran for the drone strike on a ship in the strait of Hormuz Friday morning, calling it a “foolish violation” of the ceasefire agreement.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran shot at least four One Way Attack Drones at Ships transversing the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“One of the Drones solidly hit the upper deck of a large and very expensive Cargo Carrying Ship.
Damage was done, but the Ship was able to proceed on its way.
We knocked down three other Drones.
Obviously, this is a foolish violation of our Ceasefire Agreement.” Earlier, a United Nations agency paused the evacuation of ships through the strait after the British military said a vessel was hit by a projectile off the coast of Oman following the passage of several tankers that used a route backed by the UN.
Also speaking after the guilty plea, John Bolton’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, compared the case to the 2023 indictment of Donald Trump, which accused him of illegally retaining dozens of boxes of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after his first term.
The judge overseeing the case against Trump, Aileen M Cannon, dismissed those charges before it went to trial, ruling that the special counsel who brought the prosecution (Jack Smith) had been improperly appointed.
Bolton “did what real leaders do.
He took responsibility for a mistake he made,” Lowell said.
“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.” Bolton, he added, “kept a record to preserve history, but Donald Trump kept secrets to serve himself.” Acting deputy assistant attorney general Hayden O’Byrne told reporters that “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 US Department of Justice National Security Division and our US Attorney partners will be there to prosecute you.” Hayes went on: As national security adviser to the president of the United States, Mr Bolton had access to and was responsible for safeguarding the most sensitive national defense information, including classified material.
Mr Bolton knew how to handle classified information, where it should be stored, how it should be stored, and with whom he could share that information.
He also knew the damage to national security that could be caused by mishandling that sensitive information.
Nevertheless, as Mr Bolton just admitted, he put our national security at grave risk in violation of the law … and the national defense information at issue in this case was classified at the highest classification levels.
The document in Count 12, for example, revealed intelligence about an adversary’s plans for an attack conducted against US forces in another country.
It contained human intelligence using sensitive sources and methods, and it discussed a covert action program.
As Mr Bolton admitted, he shared more than 1,000 pages of information about his day-to-day activities as the national security adviser, including information related to the national defense, with two individuals who neither had the security clearances nor the need to know that information and remarkably he did so using his personal email account and non-government messaging applications.
Speaking to reporters after John Bolton’s hearing, US attorney Kelly Hayes said: “The rules governing classified and national defense information apply equally to everyone, regardless of position and regardless of how long you have served with the United States government.” While his plea agreement with the justice department may enable John Bolton to avoid time behind bars, the judge ultimately will decide his punishment.
The plea agreement recommends capping any prison sentence at five years but the judge isn’t bound by that part of the deal, the Associated Press notes.
Bolton can withdraw his guilty plea if the judge issues a longer prison sentence or a fine greater than $2.25m.
Per his plea deal, a justice department prosecutor told Judge Theodore Chuang that John Bolton faces a fine of $2.25m - half of which should be paid within five days of his sentencing - followed by up to three years of supervised release and he also agreed to forfeit his pension from his federal service.
The sentencing is scheduled for 28 October.
As we’ve been reporting, the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool will have to be drained again.
Donald Trump has blamed vandalism for the failure to keep the water “American flag blue”.
But what if this small body of water is proof that the president can’t outrun the truth?
In the latest edition of our Politics Weekly America podcast, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Arwa Mahdawi about why this project, which has cost the taxpayer millions of dollars, is proving to be such an embarrassing failure for a man obsessed with image.
Trump forced to drain the reflecting pool swamp | Politics Weekly America John Bolton, who served as Donald Trump’s national security adviser in his first administration before becoming an outspoken critic, has pleaded guilty in a federal court hearing in Maryland to one count of retaining classified national security information in a case that could send him to prison for up to five years.
As the never-ending story of Trump’s doomed multimillion dollar renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool drags on, CNN reports that a company involved in a previous renovation 15 years ago passed on the president’s project after deeming it “unfeasible”.
Two employees of New Jersey-bsed firm Sika Corporation, which provided the concrete construction and sealing products for a 2010 renovation project of the pool, told CNN the company declined on the basis that Trump’s demands that the work be completed by the Fourth of July and that the bottom of the pool had to be blue, made the task “unfeasible”.
Trump said the pool will likely need to be drained for a second round of repairs.
Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA As we all know by now, less than a month after it was applied, the lining that turned the bottom of the reflecting pool “American flag blue” started peeling off, prompting the president to baselessly blame “vandals” rather than admit the job was rushed, and sent contractors in to patch up the problem.
Trump has floated a number of allegations, mostly with no evidence, including that vandals made a gash hundreds of feet long and illegally polluted the pool with chemicals.
Meanwhile, algal blooms sabotaged the water color, turning it murky green.
The interior department prematurely declared victory over the algae and even likened it to the US’s supposed victory over Iran.
Over a week later, Trump’s war on algae is in fact still very much ongoing, so … do with that what you will.
Algae is seen in the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool on Thursday.
