🔗 Share this article How the John Bolton Legal Situation Stands Apart Substantially from Additional Trump Opponents Former security advisor John Bolton arrives at court on recently. Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly shown his desire to see critics investigated, exerting pressure on the Justice Department to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. "We can't delay any longer, it's damaging our standing and credibility," the leader stated recently in a social media message. "I was impeached me, and charged me (five times!)" he said, mentioning the multiple legal proceedings he faced after leaving the White House in 2021 and James's lawsuit. Both have subsequently been charged, in cases that many specialists have said seem to be driven by politics and difficult to succeed in court. But the most recent charges against a presidential opponent, ex security advisor John Bolton, differ significantly, legal experts and ex-prosecutors assert. "I would say, contrasting Bolton's charges to James' is like comparing two different things," stated Mark Lesko, a former federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York. The Specifics of the Case Bolton has been formally charged on federal charges pertaining to the supposed mishandling of sensitive materials. After leaving the White House in 2019, he has become a vocal Trump critic, going so far as to describe him "stunningly uninformed" and unfit for the presidency in his book. Specialists say that while there may be political motivations to target Bolton, the methods used to secure an indictment and the evidence gathered against him indicate a possibly more substantial legal argument than the Justice Department presented against James. "These actions that's being alleged is simultaneously more serious and appears to have occurred over a considerable period of time," said Carissa Byrne Hessick, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law. Throughout his tenure as Trump's national security adviser, and after his 2019 White House departure, prosecutors claimed that Bolton placed the country at danger by improperly retaining and transmitting classified information to relatives using unprotected methods, including AOL. Several of the documents were marked highly classified. The indictment alleges that at a certain time a hacker accessed to Bolton's system where files were kept and sent an seeming warning to cause "the largest controversy since Hillary [Clinton]'s emails were released". Bolton pleaded not guilty during a court appearance on Friday to 18 distinct counts of improperly handling classified information. Retribution or a Substantial Legal Argument? The schedule of his charge - arriving on the tails of charges against Comey - has revived concerns about political pressure on the justice system. Trump previously suggested Bolton should be in jail, and described him a "sleazebag". Bolton, for his part, authored a book about his experience in the Trump administration that was sharply negative of the president. "Undoubtedly that the timing of this indictment, when combined with additional cases, has prompted doubts about the validity of these allegations, and the reason these counts are being filed now," said Jamil Jaffer, founder and director of the National Security Institute. However, he continued, "if the Justice Department is capable to prove the allegations stated and show the information is correctly classified, his behavior may certainly have broken the statute". Charging such a high-ranking figure for mishandling classified documents is "rare" but not without precedent, said Carrie Cordero, a expert at the Center for a New American Security. "Situations that concern sensitive materials present challenges to try, but they can and are brought against equally low-level and senior officials, from occasionally," she said. Parallels to Investigations into Former President and President Trump likewise faced charges of wrongfully keeping sensitive materials at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida and hindering their recovery, but that case was ultimately dismissed by a court official and voided by his return as president. A independent investigator also found that former President Joe Biden wrongfully stored sensitive materials from his period as vice president, but failed to prosecute him. Bolton's situation shares characteristics to Biden's sensitive materials matters, noted Mr Lesko, who previously held a senior security role at the DOJ. Strict procedures regulate the management of sensitive materials. To secure a guilty verdict, the government must demonstrate that Bolton knew the material he was transmitting was restricted, and he had to knowingly transfer it to someone not entitled to receive it. "Due to the classified character of the material at issue in this case, we lack a lot of details about the reasons the prosecution believes things like the diary entries and the additional material he shared by email, and why there were classified," explained Mr Jaffer. A Increasingly Traditional Legal Action The process by which the DOJ brought this case will be under scrutiny, following Trump openly expressed his desire to see his critics prosecuted and some of those indictments came to fruition. But Mr Lesko indicated in Bolton's case, prosecutors appear to have followed protocol. "The Bolton case and eventually the indictment appeared to have followed the regular procedure including the rules and norms within the Department of Justice," he said. Unlike Comey's short, concise indictment, Bolton's was a increasingly "conventional" filing that "clearly sets forth the details concerning the facts and situation here," Mr Lesko said. "It appears reasonably consistent with a long line of cases... where government officials improperly handled and transmitted classified material."