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

"We can't delay any longer, it's damaging our standing and trustworthiness," the president stated last month in a social media post.

"I was impeached twice, and charged me (five times!)" he declared, mentioning the multiple legal proceedings he encountered after leaving the White House in 2021 and James's lawsuit.

Both have since been charged, in situations that many experts have stated seem to be driven by politics and challenging to succeed in court.

But the latest charges against a presidential opponent, former national security adviser John Bolton, stand apart, legal specialists and former prosecutors assert.

"I would say, comparing Bolton's case to James' is like comparing two different things," stated Mark Lesko, a ex acting US attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

This Specifics of the Legal Situation

Bolton has been formally charged on federal charges pertaining to the supposed improper handling of classified information. Since departing the White House in 2019, he has emerged as a outspoken presidential opponent, even to call him "stunningly uninformed" and unsuitable for office in his memoir.

Specialists contend that while there may be political motivations to target Bolton, the methods used to secure an charge and the proof compiled against him indicate a potentially more substantial case than the DOJ brought against Comey.

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

Throughout his time as Trump's security advisor, and following his 2019 White House departure, authorities alleged that Bolton put the nation at danger by improperly retaining and sending sensitive documents to relatives 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 account where documents were stored and transmitted an seeming threat to cause "the largest controversy since Hillary [Clinton]'s emails were leaked".

Bolton entered a not guilty plea during a hearing on Friday to 18 distinct charges of improperly handling classified information.

Political Motivation or a Substantial Case?

The timing of his indictment - arriving on the tails of charges against Comey - has revived concerns about political pressure on the justice system.

Trump once 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 administration that was highly critical of the president.

"Undoubtedly that the schedule of this charge, when paired with others, has raised questions about the strength of these charges, and why these charges are being filed now," said Jamil Jaffer, creator and director of the National Security Institute.

Nevertheless, he added, "should the Justice Department is able to demonstrate the facts stated and demonstrate the information is properly classified, his behavior may certainly have broken the statute".

Charging such a high-ranking official for mishandling sensitive materials is "uncommon" but not without precedent, said Carrie Cordero, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

"Cases that involve classified information pose challenges to try, but they may and are filed against equally junior and high-level officials, from time to time," she explained.

Parallels to Examinations into Trump and President

Trump likewise faced allegations of wrongfully keeping sensitive materials at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and obstructing their recovery, but that case was ultimately thrown out by a federal judge and voided by his re-election as president.

A special counsel additionally determined that ex-President Joe Biden wrongfully stored sensitive materials from his time as second-in-command, but did not criminally charge him.

Bolton's situation bears similarities to Trump's classified documents issues, said Mr Lesko, who previously held a top national security role at the Justice Department.

Strict procedures govern the handling of sensitive materials. To secure a guilty verdict, the prosecution must demonstrate that Bolton knew the information he was transmitting was restricted, and he had to knowingly transmit it to someone without authorization to obtain it.

"Due to the sensitive character of the information at question in this case, we lack a lot of details about why the government contends elements like the diary entries and the additional information he communicated by email, and why there were classified," explained Mr Jaffer.

A More Traditional Prosecution

The process by which the DOJ initiated this case will be under scrutiny, following Trump publicly posted his wish to see his critics charged and several of those indictments materialized.

But Mr Lesko indicated in Bolton's situation, authorities seem to have followed protocol.

"This Bolton case and eventually the indictment seemed to have observed the regular procedure including the regulations and standards within the DOJ," he said.

In contrast to Comey's brief, concise indictment, Bolton's was a more "traditional" document that "explicitly outlines the details involving the facts and circumstances here," Mr Lesko said.

"It seems fairly consistent with a series of cases... where government officials improperly handled and shared classified material."