Washington, June 26 (IANS) Former US National Security Adviser (NSA) John Bolton pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of retaining classified national defence information, marking a dramatic turn for one of President Donald Trump’s most prominent former advisers and later one of his fiercest critics.

Bolton entered the guilty plea in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, after initially pleading not guilty to an 18-count indictment alleging the unlawful retention and transmission of classified information.

Asked by the judge whether he was guilty, the former NSA replied: “I am your honour, and I’m sorry for it.”

Under the plea agreement, Bolton admitted to one count of retaining national defence information.

Prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of no more than five years in prison. The agreement also requires him to pay a $2.25 million fine.

Federal prosecutors had accused Bolton of retaining and sharing “diary-like” records containing sensitive national security information while preparing his memoir after leaving the Trump administration.

The indictment alleged that he sent some of those records to relatives through a personal email account.

Authorities later said that the account had been compromised by hackers believed to be linked to Iran, according to The Washington Post.

Bolton served as Trump’s National Security Adviser from 2018 until his dismissal in 2019 after sharp disagreements over foreign policy.

He later emerged as one of the President Trump’s most outspoken Republican critics and published the memoir “The Room Where It Happened”, detailing his time in the White House.

The BBC reported that the Justice Department subsequently investigated whether he had mishandled classified information connected to material prepared during the writing of the book.

Trump welcomed the development, renewing his long-running criticism of his former adviser.

“I was never much of a fan of John Bolton. I never thought he was a smart person,” Trump told reporters earlier this month.

“He always wanted to kill people. He’s a bad guy. John Bolton. He’s a dirty guy and they caught him,” Trump said.

The President also described Bolton as “a very dishonest guy” and added: “I guess he’s paying the price for certainly being dishonest.”

Bolton’s plea represents the first conviction among several high-profile criminal cases brought against prominent critics of Trump.

Bolton has served in Republican administrations stretching back decades, including as US Ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, before joining Trump’s first administration.

His break with Trump over foreign policy became one of the most public splits within the former President’s national security team, culminating in the publication of his memoir in 2020.

According to CNN, the criminal case ultimately centred on his handling of classified materials rather than the contents of the published book, which did not include classified information.

–IANS

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