Former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton, a Baltimore native, pleaded guilty in federal court at Greenbelt on Friday to retaining national defense information.

The plea resolves a case accusing Bolton, 77, of mishandling classified material while serving in the White House. He admitted to one count of unlawfully retaining national defense information as part of a plea agreement that dismisses the remaining 17 counts in the indictment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.

The son of a Baltimore firefighter, Bolton grew up in a row house in a working-class neighborhood behind Mount St. Joseph High School. He attended McDonogh School in Owings Mills in the mid-1960s before attending Yale College and Yale Law School. He later served in several Republican presidential administrations and became one of the nation’s most prominent foreign policy figures.

Bolton served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser from April 2018 until September 2019. Prosecutors said he incorporated highly sensitive classified information he learned during his government duties into personal “diary” entries documenting his daily activities.

The documents included information classified up to the TOP SECRET level and Sensitive Compartmented Information , including details about foreign adversaries’ military plans, covert U.S. government operations abroad and intelligence gathered from clandestine sources and intercepted communications, according to court documents.

Prosecutors said Bolton sent the diary entries to two family members who were not authorized to receive classified information. The material was transmitted through personal email accounts and a non-government messaging application that were not approved for handling classified information. He also kept copies of the documents at his Bethesda home, where they were not permitted to be stored.

“Mr. Bolton knew the damage mishandling confidential material could cause to national security, and yet he still committed this misconduct and put American lives at risk,” U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes for the District of Maryland said in a statement. “No one is above the law, and so anyone who endangers our national security will be brought to justice.”

The case drew additional scrutiny after prosecutors said a cyber actor believed to be associated with the Islamic Republic of Iran hacked Bolton’s personal email account after he left office. Bolton reported the intrusion to law enforcement but did not disclose that the account contained national defense information, according to court documents.

“John Bolton held a position of extraordinary public trust as the country’s top national security adviser, and he betrayed that trust, jeopardizing our nation’s security,” said Hayden O’Byrne, acting deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

Bolton faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and agreed to pay a $2.25 million fine. Under federal law, his conviction also prevents him or his survivors from collecting a federal annuity or retirement pay, according to the plea agreement.

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang of the District of Maryland scheduled Bolton’s sentencing for Oct. 28 at 9:30 a.m.

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