Ex-President Donald Trump has consistently expressed his wish to see critics probed, exerting influence on the Justice Department to prosecute ex FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
"We cannot postpone any longer, it's killing our standing and trustworthiness," the president stated last month in a social media message.
"They impeached me, and charged me (5 times!)" he declared, referencing the multiple legal proceedings he encountered after leaving the White House in 2021 and James's lawsuit.
Each have since been charged, in situations that many experts have said appear to be driven by politics and difficult to win in legal proceedings.
But the latest allegations against a Trump critic, ex national security adviser John Bolton, differ significantly, legal specialists and former prosecutors say.
"I would say, contrasting Bolton's case to James' is like comparing two different things," stated Mark Lesko, a ex federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York.
The Specifics of Bolton's Legal Situation
Bolton has been criminally indicted on national allegations pertaining to the supposed mishandling of sensitive materials. Since departing the White House in 2019, he has become a vocal presidential opponent, even to describe him "remarkably ignorant" and unfit for the presidency in his book.
Specialists say that while there may be political motivations to go after Bolton, the methods used to secure an charge and the evidence gathered against him indicate a possibly stronger case than the Justice Department brought against James.
"These actions that's being claimed is simultaneously more severe and seems to have occurred over a significant period of time," said Carissa Byrne Hessick, a academic at the University of North Carolina School of Law.
Throughout his time as Trump's security advisor, and after his 2019 White House exit, authorities claimed that Bolton placed the country at risk by wrongfully keeping and sending classified information to relatives using insecure means, including AOL. Several of the materials were labeled top secret.
The charge states that at one point a unauthorized user gained access to Bolton's account where documents were stored and transmitted an seeming threat to cause "the biggest controversy since Hillary [Clinton]'s emails were released".
Bolton entered a not guilty plea during a court appearance on recently to 18 distinct charges of improperly handling classified information.
Political Motivation or a Strong Case?
The timing of his charge - coming on the tails of charges against Comey - has renewed questions about external influence on the justice system.
Trump once suggested Bolton belonged in prison, and called him a "disreputable person". Bolton, for his role, authored a publication about his time in the Trump administration that was highly critical of the president.
"There's no question that the timing of this indictment, when paired with additional cases, has prompted questions about the validity of these charges, and the reason these charges are being filed at this time," stated Jamil Jaffer, creator and executive director of the National Security Institute.
However, he added, "should the DOJ is able to prove the allegations alleged and show the information is correctly classified, his conduct may very well have violated the statute".
Charging such a high-ranking official for improperly handling sensitive materials is "rare" but not unprecedented, noted Carrie Cordero, a expert at the Center for a New American Security.
"Situations that concern sensitive materials pose difficulties to prosecute, but they can and are brought against both low-level and senior personnel, from occasionally," she explained.
Parallels to Investigations into Trump and Biden
Trump likewise faced allegations of wrongfully storing sensitive materials at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida and obstructing their return, but that matter was ultimately dismissed by a court official and voided by his re-election as president.
A special counsel additionally determined that ex-President Joe Biden wrongfully stored classified documents from his period as vice president, but did not prosecute him.
Bolton's case bears similarities to Biden's classified documents issues, noted Mr Lesko, who also held a top security role at the DOJ.
Strict procedures govern the handling of classified documents. To win a guilty verdict, the prosecution must demonstrate that Bolton knew the information he was transmitting was restricted, and he had to intentionally transfer it to someone not entitled to receive it.
"Due to the classified nature of the information at issue in this matter, we don't have a lot of details about why the government believes elements like the personal notes and the additional material he shared by electronic message, and the reason there were classified," explained Mr Jaffer.
A More Traditional Prosecution
The process by which the Justice Department initiated this legal action will be under scrutiny, following Trump publicly expressed his wish to see his political opponents prosecuted and some of those charges materialized.
But Mr Lesko indicated in Bolton's case, prosecutors seem to have followed standard procedure.
"The Bolton case and eventually the indictment seemed to have followed the standard procedure including the regulations and standards within the DOJ," he stated.
Unlike Comey's brief, two-page indictment, Bolton's was a more "traditional" filing that "clearly sets forth the particulars concerning the facts and circumstances here," Mr Lesko commented.
"It appears reasonably consistent with a long line of precedents... where government officials mishandled and transmitted classified material."
