How the Trump DOJ Extracted a Guilty Plea from John Bolton

According to several reports, John Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to mishandling classified information in connection with his memoir about his tenure as national security adviser in the first Trump administration. The book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, was a blistering critique of the president strategically timed to be published in the run-up to the 2020 election, which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden.

Bolton has reached a deal with Trump DOJ prosecutors to plead guilty to a single felony count of illegal retention of classified information. He would face up to five years’ imprisonment (there is no minimum sentence, so it’s possible he’d face no incarceration time).

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

According to several reports, John Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to mishandling classified information in connection with his memoir about his tenure as national security adviser in the first Trump administration. The book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, was a blistering critique of the president strategically timed to be published in the run-up to the 2020 election, which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden.

Bolton has reached a deal with Trump DOJ prosecutors to plead guilty to a single felony count of illegal retention of classified information. He would face up to five years’ imprisonment (there is no minimum sentence, so it’s possible he’d face no incarceration time).

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.