Former National Security Advisor John Bolton plans to plead guilty in his classified documents case, which includes a roughly $2 million fine, according to CNN.
The outlet reported that Bolton will plead guilty to a single count for holding onto the documents, which could lead to up to 60 months behind bars at most.
A federal grand jury indicted Bolton in October for how he used the information, and he was charged with illegally sending “national defense information (NDI) and holding onto the NDI papers.
“The FBI’s investigation revealed that John Bolton allegedly transmitted top secret information using personal online accounts and retained said documents in his house in direct violation of federal law,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement at the time.
“The case was based on meticulous work from dedicated career professionals at the FBI who followed the facts without fear or favor. Weaponization of justice will not be tolerated, and this FBI will stop at nothing to bring to justice anyone who threatens our national security,” he added.
The charges originally outlined in the indictment could have led to decades in prison if convicted, according to a Justice Department press release.
His Bethesda, Maryland, home was raided by the FBI in August. Bolton was the NSA advisor to President Donald Trump from 2018 to 2019, but he was very publicly fired by the president in September 2019.
“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration,” Trump tweeted at the time, adding that he “asked John for his resignation.”