Donald Trump has made no effort to hide his contempt for John Bolton, who served as the president’s White House national security adviser in his first term, and his desire to see Bolton punished for becoming a Trump critic.
With this in mind, the president will likely be thrilled with the latest developments in Bolton’s criminal case: MS NOW’s Ken Dilianian and Carol Leonnig report, citing two people familiar with the matter, that Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of retaining classified information contained in a private diary entry.
The plea deal calls for up to 60 months in jail and a $2.25 million fine, according to the sources. It would resolve a massive indictment that threatened Bolton with millions of dollars in legal fees and decades in prison. CNN was first to report on the plea deal.
The apparent resolution of the Bolton case appears to be very similar to what happened with former CIA Director and retired Gen. David Petraeus, who also pleaded guilty in 2015 to a single count of retaining classified information for a diary that was shown to a co-author, reported MS NOW’s Dilanian and Leonnig.
The difference, however, is that Petraeus pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, while Bolton appears poised to admit to a felony.
The path to this point has been rocky and circuitous. Bolton, after having served at the president’s side for a year and a half, warned the public during the 2024 election cycle that Trump was “unfit to be president.” The Republican responded with an endless stream of insults and complaints about his former aide.
At one point, Trump even published an item to social media that read in part, “Bolton … likes dropping bombs on people, and killing them. Now he will have bombs dropped on him!”
One such “bomb” appeared to detonate in October, when Bolton was indicted by a federal grand jury in Maryland.
In the weeks leading up to the indictment, Trump breathed new life into his yearslong offensive against Bolton, calling him a “fired loser” and a “really dumb” person. Days earlier, the president added that Bolton was “stupid” and accused him standing in the way of the peace process in Ukraine.