Why case against John Bolton is not like the others against Trump critics

President Donald Trump has made no secret that he wants to see his critics investigated and has pressed the Justice Department to file charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“We cannot delay any longer, it is killing our reputation and credibility,” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social last month.

“They indicted me twice and sued me (5 times!),” he said, referring to the four criminal cases he faced after leaving the White House in 2021 and James’ civil case.

Both were indicted in cases that many experts say are politically motivated and difficult to win in court.

But legal experts and former prosecutors say the latest charges against former national security adviser John Bolton, who has criticized Trump, are different.

“I would say comparing Bolton’s accusations to Comey’s and James’ accusations is like comparing apples to oranges,” said Mark Lesko, former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Bolton was indicted on federal charges related to the alleged mishandling of classified information. Since leaving the White House in 2019, she has become an outspoken critic of Trump, going so far as to call him “staggeringly clueless” and unfit for office in her memoir.

While there may be political reasons to go after Bolton, the procedures used to prepare the indictment and the evidence compiled against him point to the potential for a stronger case than the Justice Department’s case against Comey or James, experts say.

“This alleged misconduct appears to be both more serious and occurred over a longer period of time,” said Carissa Byrne Hessick, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

During his tenure as Trump’s national security adviser and after he left the White House in 2019, prosecutors alleged that Bolton put the country at risk by improperly storing classified information and transmitting it to family members using unsecured methods, including AOL. Some documents were labeled top secret.

The indictment alleges that at one point a hacker gained access to Bolton’s account, where the documents were stored, and sent an apparent threat that would lead to “the biggest scandal since Hillary.” [Clinton]’s emails were leaked”.

Bolton pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of mishandling classified information at Friday’s hearing.

The timing of the indictment, which came on the heels of the charges against Comey and James, has renewed questions about political pressure on the justice system.

Trump once suggested Bolton belonged in prison and described him as “scum.” Bolton, on the other hand, wrote a book about his time in the Trump administration that was highly critical of the president.

“There is no doubt that the timing of this indictment, combined with others, raises questions about the strength of these charges and why these charges are being brought now,” said Jamil Jaffer, founder and managing director of the National Security Institute at George Mason University Antonin Scalia School of Law.

But he added that “if the Department of Justice can prove the alleged facts and show that the information was properly classified, its conduct may well have violated the law.”

Carrie Cordero, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said it was “rare” but not unprecedented for such a high-ranking official to be accused of mishandling classified documents.

“Cases involving classified information present prosecution challenges, but they can and are occasionally brought against both low-level and high-level officials,” he said.

Trump was similarly accused of improperly storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and blocking their return, but that case was ultimately dismissed by a federal judge and dismissed upon his re-election as president.

A special counsel also found that former President Joe Biden improperly withheld classified documents from his time as vice president, but did not criminally charge him.

Mr. Lesko, who also holds a senior national security role at the Justice Department, said Bolton’s case bore similarities to Trump and Biden’s classified documents issues.

Processing of confidential documents is subject to strict procedures. To obtain a conviction, the government must prove that Bolton knew the information he transmitted was confidential and that he knowingly passed it on to someone who had no right to receive it.

“Due to the confidential nature of the material at issue in this case, we don’t have a lot of detail as to why the government believes things like the diary entries and other information he forwarded via email and why they were kept secret,” Mr. Jaffer said.

The process by which the Justice Department filed this case will come under scrutiny after Trump publicly stated that he wanted his political opponents prosecuted and some of those indictments came to fruition.

But Mr. Lesko said prosecutors in the Bolton case followed protocol.

“The Bolton investigation and eventual indictment appeared to follow the normal process, including the rules and norms of the Department of Justice,” he said.

Unlike Comey’s brief, two-page indictment, Mr. Lesko said, Bolton’s was a more “conventional” document that “clearly sets out the details of the facts and circumstances herein.”

“It appears to be quite consistent with a number of cases… in which government officials mishandled and passed on classified material.”