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Ex-President Donald Trump has consistently expressed his desire to see critics investigated, applying pressure on the Justice Department to charge ex FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

"We cannot postpone any longer, it's killing our reputation and trustworthiness," the president stated recently in a social media post.

"I was impeached me, and indicted me (5 times!)" he said, mentioning the four criminal cases he encountered after departing the White House in 2021 and James's civil case.

Both have subsequently been indicted, in cases that many specialists have said appear to be politically motivated and challenging to win in legal proceedings.

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

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

This Details of Bolton's Legal Situation

Bolton has been formally charged on national allegations related to the alleged improper handling of classified information. After departing the White House in 2019, he has become a vocal presidential opponent, going so far as to describe him "stunningly uninformed" and unfit for the presidency in his book.

Experts say that while there may be political motivations to target Bolton, the methods used to obtain an indictment and the proof gathered against him suggest a possibly stronger legal argument than the Justice Department presented against Comey.

"This misconduct that's being alleged is simultaneously more serious and seems to have taken place over a considerable duration," commented Carissa Byrne Hessick, a academic at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Throughout his time as Trump's security advisor, and following his 2019 White House exit, prosecutors claimed that Bolton put the nation at risk by wrongfully retaining and sending classified information to family members using unprotected methods, including AOL. Several of the documents were labeled top secret.

The indictment states that at a certain time a hacker accessed to Bolton's system where files were kept and transmitted an apparent threat to cause "the largest controversy since Hillary [Clinton]'s emails were leaked".

Bolton pleaded not guilty during a hearing on recently to eighteen separate counts of improperly handling classified information.

Retribution or a Strong Legal Argument?

The timing of his charge - coming on the tails of allegations against James - has renewed questions about external influence on the justice system.

Trump previously implied Bolton should be in jail, and called him a "disreputable person". Bolton, for his part, wrote a publication about his experience in the Trump government that was highly critical of the leader.

"Undoubtedly that the schedule of this indictment, when combined with additional cases, has prompted doubts about the validity of these allegations, and the reason these charges are being brought now," stated Jamil Jaffer, creator and executive director of the National Security Institute.

Nevertheless, he continued, "if the DOJ is capable to prove the allegations alleged and demonstrate the material is properly classified, his conduct may very well have violated the law".

Charging such a senior figure for mishandling classified documents is "rare" but not without precedent, said Carrie Cordero, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

"Cases that concern sensitive materials pose challenges to prosecute, but they may and are brought against both low-level and high-level personnel, from time to time," she explained.

Parallels to Examinations into Trump and Biden

Trump likewise faced allegations of improperly storing sensitive materials at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida and hindering their return, but that matter was ultimately thrown out by a court official and voided by his return as leader.

A special counsel additionally found that ex-President Joe Biden wrongfully maintained sensitive materials from his period as vice president, but did not criminally charge him.

Bolton's situation shares characteristics to Trump's sensitive materials matters, said Mr Lesko, who also held a top national security role at the Justice Department.

Rigorous protocols govern the management of classified documents. To win a guilty verdict, the government must prove that Bolton knew the information he was transmitting was classified, and he had to knowingly transmit it to someone not entitled to obtain it.

"Because of the classified nature of the material at issue in this case, we lack a lot of particulars about why the government contends elements like the personal notes and the other material he communicated by electronic message, and the reason there were classified," explained Mr Jaffer.

A Increasingly Traditional Legal Action

The process by which the Justice Department initiated this case will be closely examined, after Trump publicly expressed his wish to see his critics charged and some of those charges came to fruition.

But Mr Lesko indicated in Bolton's case, authorities seem to have adhered to protocol.

"This Bolton case and ultimately the charge seemed to have followed the standard procedure including the rules and standards within the DOJ," he stated.

Unlike Comey's short, concise charge, Bolton's was a increasingly "conventional" document that "explicitly sets forth the particulars concerning the circumstances and circumstances here," Mr Lesko commented.

"It appears fairly consistent with a series of cases... where government officials mishandled and transmitted classified material."