Former National Security Advisor John Bolton has reportedly agreed to enter a plea deal over his alleged mishandling of classified documents just months after he claimed he was the victim of a weaponized Department of Justice.
Bolton is set to plead guilty to a single count of retaining classified information, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Bolton was initially indicted on 18 counts in October related to his alleged leaking of national security secrets while he was writing a memoir. Under the plea deal, Bolton will pay a $2.25 million fine and could possibly help him avoid prison time, according to the AP.
But it’s hard to ignore that the same man who reportedly just agreed to plead guilty — an admission that he committed a crime — is the same man who insisted months ago that he was the victim of political persecution.
“I have become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those he deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts,” Bolton said following the indictment.
The claim was convenient for the propaganda press, which was desperate to prove that President Donald Trump was doing exactly what it spent years denying the Biden administration had done. But Bolton’s guilty plea now makes that coverage look ridiculous.
Even before the indictment was handed down, outlets like The New York Times were working overtime to cast a shadow of doubt on the investigation itself, with one piece headlined: “Search of Bolton’s Home Shows Uneasy Mix of Retribution and Law Enforcement.”
“It is not clear what evidence the authorities have that John Bolton mishandled classified information, but President Trump’s efforts to punish rivals immediately stoked questions about the investigation,” the subhead read.
Even before most facts were available, readers were encouraged to view the investigation through the lens of weaponization and political persecution rather than the possibility that Bolton may have actually committed a crime.
Once the indictment occurred, the media went into overdrive to frame the indictment as an example of weaponization.
Politico’s Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney reported on the indictment in October, with a subhead that read: “The charges against Trump’s former national security adviser come as the president has pressured DOJ to pursue criminal indictments of his political foes.”
CNBC’s Dan Mangan framed the original indictment news this way: “Bolton, 76, is the third high-profile Trump foe in recent weeks to be criminally charged after extensive criticism by the president” — apparently to create the impression that Trump’s criticism led to the indictment.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins headlined her piece: “Bolton decries indictment and Trump’s ‘abuse of power,’” elevating Bolton’s allegations as though they were credible by default.
Axios’ Rebecca Falconer highlighted the Bolton claim that the Trump administration looked like “Stalin’s secret police after indictment.”
Democracy Docket’s Jacob Knutson headlined his piece about the indictment: “DOJ, Now Trump’s Tool of Personal Retribution, Indicts John Bolton.”
It mattered naught to the legacy media that, as the Associated Press reported at the time, “the investigation that produced the indictment began before Trump’s second term.”
That detail alone should have dispelled allegations that Bolton’s prosecution was part a personal revenge tour on behalf of the president. Nonetheless, much of the media just accepted Bolton’s narrative and ran with that framing anyway.
But Bolton’s guilty plea not only undermines Bolton’s own weaponization claims, but also exposes how ridiculous the media’s attacks on Trump have been. They ran with an angle that lacked evidence simply because it aligned with a preferred narrative, that is, that the Trump administration is corrupt. They wanted Bolton’s case to be the proof that Trump had turned the Justice Department into a weaponization bureau and instead, it’s just more proof that they are propagandists.
