Bolton Pleads Guilty

John Bolton, the former US national security adviser who left Donald Trump’s first administration and became a staunch critic of the US president, will reportedly plead guilty over mishandling classified documents.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) filed federal charges against Bolton in October 2025, one of a string of Trump critics against whom it secured criminal charges in a matter of weeks.

Trump claimed at the time he was not aware of charges against Bolton, but that his former adviser was a “bad guy”.

Bolton had long fallen out of favor with Trump by the time he released a memoir, The Room Where It Happened, including a critical behind-the-scenes look into his administration, in 2020.