The original indictment carried 17 counts against him.  Today, John Bolton has pleaded guilty to one felony of willfully retaining classified information.  The plea agreement includes a max term of 5 years prison, $2.25 million fine and forfeiture of his federal pension.

U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes made the announcement saying: “John Robert Bolton II plead guilty in federal court to the unlawful retention of national defense information…Mr. Bolton faces a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison followed by a term of up to three years of supervised release. He will also pay a fine of $2.25 million and will forfeit his pension.”

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Apparently, the fine is the income Bolton received from the book he authored using the classified information.

According to Politico the single charge plea “is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, but under the terms of the deal, Bolton, 77, can withdraw his plea and go to trial if Chuang decides a sentence of more than five years is warranted.”

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivers a post-meeting media briefing in Bahrain following talks with Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers. Secretary Rubio begins with an outline of the U.S. crisis response to the requests from the Venezuela government, the Iran peace process, regional security, U.S.-Italy relations involving Giorgia Meloni, questions regarding JD Vance, and broader diplomatic priorities shaping Washington’s foreign policy agenda. WATCH:

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Against the backdrop of President Trump, Secretary Rubio and Secretary Hegseth pointedly telling NATO of the U.S. intention to draw-down U.S. military operations from Europe, NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte flies to Washington DC to make the pro-NATO sales pitch directly to President Trump.

In one of the most transparent appearances in oval office history, a passionate, self-interested and professionally demure Mark Rutte pours on the praise for President Trump and puts on a massive sales pitch.  You can tell from President Trump’s demeanor, tone and general ambivalence, he too can see how over the top the praise and back-slapping is.

Secretary Rutte was intensely and diplomatically focused on not allowing any accurate criticism or statement of disappointment from President Trump be left unchallenged to frame the tone and context of the meeting by the media. This is quite a desperate spectacle to witness when you understand the stakes for Europe which were carried by Rutte. WATCH:

CTH readers can see through the professionally demure motivations of the NATO secretary, and it was obvious from President Trump’s response that Rutte was transparently playing to the U.S. audience and DC stakeholders.  That said, you’ve got to give Rutte credit for tap-dancing that fine line.

It was a great sales pitch, and President Trump was very courteous and respectful of the showmanship, but I doubt President Trump was moved much.  The G7 assembly in Turkey will be very interesting.

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It did not happen last night folks.  It took them another 15 years after they installed Obama to become the legitimate heirs to the political party formerly known as Democrats.

The progressive movement is now branded as “Democrat Socialists of America” (DSA), but those who have followed the arc of this group well understand every single member within DSA is from the Occupy Wall Street / Anarchy movement that preceded it.

Fingers are being pointed toward New York as the epicenter of the new Democrat Party Headquarters of DSA, which is a fitting location of focus given the OWS origin.

The front line of the DSA movement consists of 18 to 30-year-olds, mostly white, urban, upper-middle-income activists, carrying Macbooks with anarchist stickers and physical attire resembling a blend of hipster ‘grunge’ and skateboard beanie resistance.  They don’t shower much and love to talk about AOC and Bernie on Social Media.

Don’t belittle them, they are authentic.  They don’t misunderstand things; they bought into the nonsense and genuinely believe the popular narrative sold to them since High School that capitalism is horrible and Communism or Socialism is the preferred system of government.

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CBS is reporting on events within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.  As CTH previously outlined, Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte is following a very predictable path. {GO DEEP}

The part of the CBS report that tells the story is: “Six career and political intelligence staff were terminated and 45 were sent back to their home agencies, according to three sources familiar with the personnel moves.” … “One source characterized the cuts as thoughtful and methodical. No staffers have been removed from the counterterrorism group.”

So, who was removed?  Well, I’m certainly not the Nostradamus of USIC, but if I were to hazard an educated guess it looks like the National Intelligence Council – Directorate of Analysis, just lost six political staff, and 45 people from the various liaison desks were ‘sent back to their home agencies.’

As we noted last year, Tulsi Gabbard took the National Intelligence Council (NIC) out of the CIA – fired the heads, then putting the assembly back under the control of the ODNI.  However, highly political operatives within the former CIA-controlled Directorate of Analysis (the former home of Eric Ciarmella) were still problematic.  It looks like Director Pulte just eliminated the remaining DoA rats.

The 45 returned to their ‘home agencies‘ were certainly from the liaison desks inside the DNI.

I’m not sure if that represents 45 from across all the desks, or the complete elimination of some overstaffed liaison desks.  That said, given the nature of the leaking was recently to CNN (State Dept leaks to CNN), I am somewhat confident the State Dept liaison office inside the DNI is now empty office space.  [Just a hunch 😂]

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If you were with CTH when I did the deep dive into the Miami-Dade School Police Department and Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, all of it related to the Travyon Martin case. You will likely remember how corrupt and sketchy Carvalho was. {SEARCH TOOL}

Carvalho organized a system within Miami-Dade, where black male students could avoid criminal charges, including felony cases, and have their behavior instead handled with school discipline.

The approach was part of the Obama inspired “My Brother’s Keeper” concept.  Miami-Dade School Police (MDSPD) were instructed not to arrest black male students and instead refer their conduct to school administration.  Trayvon Martin was one of the beneficiaries {GO DEEP}.

Trayvon had burglarized a residence near the High School.  He was serving a two-week suspension from school, sent to his father Tracy Martin in the Orlando area, and it was during that two-week suspension when George Zimmerman spotted Trayvon looking in the patio doors and windows of residences in his condominium complex.  The rest is history.

School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho was/is a very well connected political figure among Democrats.  He was even considered for a VP nomination.  However, it was Carvalho’s program to use the school police to inflate statistical improvements in schools that eventually led to neighboring Broward County doing the same thing in 2013. That “Promise Program” duplication led to the Parkland High School shooting.

Carvalho went to New York City under Mayor Bill de Blasio, and then out to Los Angeles.  In February of this year, reports surfaced of Carvalho being under an FBI investigation for misuse of office, financial crimes, wire fraud and embezzlement. Yesterday Carvalho announced his resignation.

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Most of MAGA will miss this one.

“There are trillions at stake.”

Three months ago, a certain Democrat Senator from Arizona wrote a letter to President Donald Trump and USTR Jamieson Greer asking them to either radically modify or dissolve the USMCA trade agreement {LETTER HERE}.

I said at the time (March 2026), he was putting a target directly on his back – that a certain ‘seven ways from Sunday group’ would now acquire. Well, look at what happens:

[STORY HERE]

Whenever a Democrat is targeted by democrat IC operations, there’s always something else behind the effort.

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This is the third step in what I believe is a transparent operation conducted by Ukraine and the U.K (NATO group).

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is now demanding the U.S. give license approval to military contractors in order to build U.S. Patriot Missile systems in Ukraine and throughout Europe.

I am almost certain this was the intent of the previous operation carried out by Ukraine upon their own religious and cultural centers in Kiev.  It fits a long-established pattern of operation which we have watched unfold in real time over the past few years.  Again, for emphasis, I cannot prove this – but deeply suspect it is accurate.

Breaking down what Zelenskyy outlines below. This is what it looked like in real time as the events described below unfolded.

(1) Following the pattern of visible and political diminishment of Christianity within Ukraine, the Nazi side of Ukraine carried out a false flag attack on their own cathedral and cultural sites as the set up to their plan. This was staged and timed to happen just before the G7 assembly in France.

(2) Using #1 as the pretense and justification, Ukraine then pulled the trigger on 600 simultaneous drones targeting Moscow in Russia – the drones were pre-staged and set to attack during the G7. This was planned prior to the events in France.

(3) Using #1 and #2 as the central backdrop, internal G7 pressure was then directed toward the U.S. delegation, while holding home turf on the ground of the ‘coalition of the willing.’ Zelenskyy, Starmer and Macron had this set up in advance.

That’s the outlook when you drop the pretenses. That’s the nature of this Ukraine. That’s also why we continue to call this operation World War Reddit! Here’s Zelenskyy’s demand:

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With Acting DNI Bill Pulte coming into office, several people have requested my simple guide to identifying media leaks.

This reference resource is based on historic patterns and generally has an 80/20 accuracy rate.  While there are some leaks that cross through the data pattern, in the aggregate this basic outline has shown to be correct.

The leak source identification can help interested political observers understand the motives and objectives.

When you see the term “exclusive” in the originating media report, this guide increases in accuracy:

• The State Department leaks to CNN
• The CIA leaks to The Washington Post
• The DOJ/FBI leaks to The New York Times and Politico
• DHS domestically leaks to the Wall Street Journal
• The National Security Council leaks primarily to Axios and Politico, NYT secondary
• The Pentagon leaks to Fox News and the Wall Street Journal (Axios more recent)
• Kash Patel leaks to John Solomon – Just The News
• ¹DNI leaks to the Wall Street Journal, however:

¹The ODNI gets a little complicated due to the structure of the ODNI.  Each intelligence agency has a liaison office inside the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.  Generally, the topline guide above overlays with the desk assignment.

Example 1: CNN gets an ‘exclusive’ leak related to the DNI; the leak sourcing is therefore most likely to be the State Dept Desk inside the DNI office. (State Dept leaks to CNN)

Example 2: Washington Post gets an ‘exclusive’ leak related to the DNI.  The leak sourcing is directly from the CIA liaison desk inside DNI.  (CIA leaks to WaPo)

This is the consistent pattern that established itself over the past 20 years.  It is generally accurate on an 80/20 basis. Meaning 80% of the time the origin of the leak can be identified this way with accuracy; 20% of the time it is not.

Hope that helps.

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Telegram founder Pavel Durov is one voice who has been consistent in his message about how western countries have become increasingly authoritarian in their efforts to retain power and control.  Durov is the real deal; the John Galt within the mechanisms of digital communication.

The principle under attack is freedom, and the recent examples of internet and social media control via age verification are steps within this process.  Durov notes these moments are like the early stages of the Titanic after hitting the iceberg, where people aboard the ship did not quite realize the scope of the danger around them.

Take the time to listen to what Durov shares with specific examples and citations to back up his warning.  Well worth the time. Pavel Durov shares how Telegram emerged from a commitment to free expression and why defending digital freedom is central to protecting human rights today.

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