The media spent months calling Bolton's prosecution a revenge plot.
Now a sitting U.S. senator just went on live television and ended the debate.
What Banks said to Rob Schmitt Thursday night is going to follow Bolton all the way to his June 26 court date.
Jim Banks Responds to John Bolton Guilty Plea
Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony count of retaining classified national security information.
Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) appeared on Newsmax's Rob Schmitt Tonight and delivered a blunt verdict.
"He pled guilty because he was guilty."
Banks named exactly what Bolton did.
"He had classified documents that he kept illegally in his home for whatever purposes, whether it was to write a book or whatever it was," Banks said.
Then Banks went after everyone who spent months running cover for him.
"All of the left-wing media figures who said that President Trump was weaponizing the Department of Justice against this guy, and then he ends up pleading guilty," Banks said. "It just goes to show the hypocrisy on the left."
"He lied all along. He pled guilty. And now he's going to be held accountable for it."
Bolton Called for Prosecuting Classified Document Violations Before He Was Charged With One
In June 2023, when Trump faced 37 criminal counts over classified documents, Bolton was on television demanding maximum prosecution.
"Shouldn't this man go to jail?" Bolton said publicly. "The simple fact he had the documents for any reason or no reason should subject him to prosecution."
He didn't stop there.
"Read the indictment and ask yourself if the government can prove what they allege here," Bolton told anyone with a camera. "Proceed with the prosecution and do the same for anybody else who does anything even remotely like it."
Bolton is now that anybody else.
The plea deal calls for a felony conviction, up to 60 months in prison, and a $2.25 million fine.
The Charges Bolton Can No Longer Talk His Way Out Of
Bolton transmitted over 1,000 pages of Top Secret material to his wife and daughter – neither of whom held a security clearance – through a personal AOL email account.
The classified material included intelligence about a foreign adversary's missile launch plans and details about U.S. covert operations.
Suspected Iranian hackers then breached that AOL account in 2021 and walked straight into everything Bolton left sitting there.
A man who demanded others be jailed for possessing classified documents handed foreign adversaries a window into America's most sensitive intelligence on a consumer email platform.
The Bolton Classified Documents Investigation Started Under Biden and Career Prosecutors Backed Every Step
Bolton called the charges "a form of retribution" and his supporters in the media echoed it on every platform they had.
What they never explained: the FBI launched its investigation into Bolton in 2021 – during the Biden administration – after Iranian hackers exposed what he had left on AOL.
The Justice Department's own career investigators, not Trump appointees, drove this case to a guilty plea.
Former Attorney General Pamela Bondi said it directly when Bolton was charged: "There is one tier of justice for all Americans. Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable."
Trump told Fox News in June 2022 that Bolton should go to jail over the classified information in his memoir.
The media called that a threat.
Jim Banks called it Thursday night.
Another media hoax went up in smoke with John Bolton’s guilty plea.
Sources:
- Solange Reyner, "Sen. Banks to Newsmax: Bolton Guilty Plea Exposes Critics' Hypocrisy," Newsmax, June 4, 2026.
- "Exclusive: John Bolton Reaches Plea Deal Over Mishandling of Sensitive National Security Information," CNN Politics, June 4, 2026.
- Fred Lucas, "John Bolton Expected to Plead Guilty in Classified Docs Case," The Daily Signal, June 4, 2026.
- "Former Trump Adviser John Bolton Indicted on Classified Documents Charges," ABC News, October 17, 2025.