John Bolton, who was National Security Advisor to then-US President Donald Trump during his first term, has reached an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office under which he will plead guilty to a single charge related to the improper handling of classified documents.
The agreement contemplates the payment of a financial penalty exceeding 2.25 million dollars (almost two million euros) and a possible sentence of up to 60 months in prison. This would close around twenty charges against Bolton, which could have resulted in millions of dollars in legal costs and several decades behind bars, according to sources consulted by the US network MS Now.
In any case, Bolton's guilty plea agreement—which must be presented to a judge on June 26—excludes any accusations of leaking confidential information to the media or to governments of other countries. Trump's former advisor maintains that "only" his wife and daughter had access to the official secrets in question.
Bolton, who after leaving the government between 2018 and 2019 became one of the former president's fiercest critics, was accused last October of nearly twenty offenses for the improper handling of classified material, especially for the illicit transmission and retention of information on national defense.
According to the indictment, Bolton allegedly shared documents marked top secret using personal email accounts and messaging applications. These materials included data on potential future attacks, international adversaries, and sensitive foreign policy matters.
The judicial case also maintains that Bolton illegally kept confidential files in his home that included information on the leaders of an adversary, intelligence sources, and compilations used to obtain statements about a rival country.
Months before the charges were formalized, FBI agents searched his residence in Bethesda, Maryland. After leaving the Trump Administration, Bolton published a book about his experience in the White House, titled 'The Room Where It Happened,' in which he describes the then-US president as incompetent.