John Bolton Reaches Plea Deal in Major Win for Trump’s Revenge Quest

Former national security adviser John Bolton is expected to agree to a plea deal over mishandling classified documents, in a major win for Donald Trump’s retribution campaign.Bolton is expected to plead guilty to one count of illegal retention of sensitive national security documents and has agreed to pay a more than $2 million fine, according to sources that spoke with CNN Thursday.A conviction could put the 77-year-old in the clink: One count of illegal retention carries a sentence between zero and 60 months in prison.Bolton’s loss is a major coup for Trump, who has leveraged the power of his second term to enact a widespread retribution campaign against his so-called political enemies.Bolton was one of the president’s closest advisers during his first term—until September 2019, when Trump fired him over internal clashes related to foreign policy. He has since become one of Trump’s most vocal critics from his last administration, railing against the president’s takes on NATO, Iran, and Russia.Trump began advocating for Bolton’s arrest around the time that the former adviser published his 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, about his time in the Trump White House. The book was very critical of the president, but Trump took it a step further, claiming that the text was actually illegal as Bolton had included classified information. Trump’s DOJ opened criminal and civil investigations into Bolton at the time, though the cases were closed mere months into the Biden administration.Prosecutors in the new case have accused Bolton of sharing “more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities” via his personal email with his wife and daughter, CNN reported late last year. Yet the transmission of information is not part of the charges Bolton is expected to plead guilty to.Bolton’s hearing is scheduled for June 26.This story has been updated.