🔗 Share this article

Former President Donald Trump has consistently shown his desire to see critics probed, exerting influence on the Justice Department to charge ex FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

"We can't delay further, it's killing our reputation and credibility," the president wrote recently in a Truth Social message.

"They impeached twice, and indicted me (5 times!)" he said, mentioning the multiple legal proceedings he encountered after leaving the White House in 2021 and James's lawsuit.

Each have since been indicted, in situations that numerous specialists have stated seem to be politically motivated and difficult to win in court.

But the latest allegations against a presidential opponent, former security advisor John Bolton, stand apart, legal experts and ex-prosecutors assert.

"I would say, contrasting Bolton's case to James' is like comparing two different things," stated Mark Lesko, a former federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York.

This Details of the Case

Bolton has been criminally indicted on federal charges pertaining to the alleged improper handling of sensitive materials. Since departing the White House in 2019, he has emerged as a outspoken Trump critic, even to call him "stunningly uninformed" and unfit for the presidency in his book.

Experts say that while there may be political reasons to go after Bolton, the procedures used to obtain an indictment and the evidence gathered against him suggest a possibly stronger case than the Justice Department presented against Comey.

"These actions that's being alleged is both more severe and seems to have taken place over a considerable duration," said Carissa Byrne Hessick, a academic at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Throughout his time as Trump's national security adviser, and after his 2019 White House departure, prosecutors alleged that Bolton placed the nation at danger by wrongfully keeping and transmitting classified information to family members using insecure means, including AOL. Some of the documents were marked top secret.

The indictment states that at one point a hacker gained access to Bolton's system where files were kept and transmitted an seeming threat to cause "the largest scandal since Hillary [Clinton]'s emails were released".

Bolton pleaded not guilty during a hearing on recently to eighteen separate charges of mishandling classified information.

Political Motivation or a Substantial Case?

The timing of his indictment - coming on the tails of allegations against Comey - has revived questions about political pressure on the justice system.

Trump once implied Bolton should be in jail, and described him a "disreputable person". Bolton, for his role, authored a book about his time in the Trump government that was sharply negative of the leader.

"There's no question that the schedule of this indictment, when paired with additional cases, has raised questions about the strength of these charges, and why these charges are being filed at this time," said Jamil Jaffer, founder and director of the National Security Institute.

However, he continued, "if the Justice Department is able to demonstrate the allegations alleged and demonstrate the material is correctly classified, his conduct may very well have broken the law".

Charging such a senior official for mishandling classified documents is "uncommon" but not unprecedented, said Carrie Cordero, a expert at the Center for a New American Security.

"Cases that involve sensitive materials pose difficulties to try, but they may and are filed against both junior and high-level personnel, from occasionally," she explained.

Parallels to Investigations into Trump and President

Trump likewise faced charges of wrongfully storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and obstructing their return, but that case was ultimately thrown out by a federal judge and negated by his return as president.

A independent investigator also found that former President Joe Biden wrongfully stored sensitive materials from his time as second-in-command, but did not prosecute him.

Bolton's situation shares characteristics to Trump's sensitive materials matters, noted Mr Lesko, who also held a top security position at the DOJ.

Rigorous protocols govern the management of sensitive materials. To win a guilty verdict, the government must prove that Bolton was aware the information he was transmitting was classified, and he had to knowingly transfer it to someone without authorization to obtain it.

"Due to the sensitive character of the information at question in this matter, we lack a lot of details about why the government believes elements like the diary entries and the other information he communicated by electronic message, and why there were restricted," said Mr Jaffer.

A More Traditional Legal Action

The procedure by which the Justice Department initiated this legal action will be under scrutiny, after Trump publicly posted his wish to see his political opponents charged and some of those indictments came to fruition.

But Mr Lesko said in Bolton's situation, prosecutors appear to have adhered to protocol.

"This Bolton prosecution and eventually the indictment seemed to have observed the standard procedure including the rules and standards within the DOJ," he said.

In contrast to Comey's brief, concise indictment, Bolton's was a increasingly "conventional" filing that "clearly outlines the details involving the facts and situation in this instance," Mr Lesko said.

"It seems fairly consistent with a series of cases... where public servants improperly handled and transmitted classified material."