John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during President Donald Trump’s first term, told a federal court he mishandled national security information, Reuters reported. The 77-year-old, who later became a critic of Trump after serving from 2018 to 2019, pleaded guilty on June 26 to one count of retaining national security information after reaching a plea deal earlier this month. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 28.
Bolton faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and up to three years of supervised release, according to Kelly Hayes, the U.S. Attorney for Maryland, who spoke outside the courthouse after Bolton’s court appearance.
“He will also pay a fine of $2.25 million and will forfeit his pension under the Hiss Act,” Hayes said. The law denies pensions to federal employees convicted of national security crimes.
“No one is above the law, and I hope that this prosecution sends a clear message that we will vigorously investigate and prosecute individuals who violate our national security laws without fear and without favor,” Hayes said.
A federal grand jury indicted Bolton in October on eight counts of transmitting national defense information and 10 counts of retaining national defense information. Most of the information in question was classified as top secret, according to the indictment.
The indictment said Bolton “abused his position” as national security adviser by “sharing more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities” on the job with two relatives who lived in his home but were not named in the indictment.
The indictment said Bolton kept handwritten notes of his days and then sent diary-like entries to these relatives using a commercial messaging application, and sent other top secret information to them using his personal email accounts hosted by AOL and Google.