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Former President Donald Trump has consistently shown his wish to see opponents investigated, exerting influence on the Justice Department to charge former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

"We can't delay further, it's damaging our reputation 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 encountered after departing the White House in 2021 and James's civil case.

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

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

"In my opinion, contrasting Bolton's charges to James' is like comparing apples to oranges," said Mark Lesko, a former federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York.

This Specifics of Bolton's Case

Bolton has been formally charged on federal charges pertaining to the supposed improper handling of sensitive materials. After departing the White House in 2019, he has become a outspoken presidential opponent, going so far as to call him "stunningly uninformed" and unsuitable for the presidency in his memoir.

Specialists contend that while there may be political motivations to target Bolton, the procedures used to secure an charge and the evidence compiled against him suggest a potentially stronger legal argument than the DOJ brought against Comey.

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

During his time as Trump's security advisor, and following his 2019 White House exit, authorities claimed that Bolton put the country at risk by improperly retaining and sending classified information to relatives using unprotected methods, including AOL. Several of the documents were labeled highly classified.

The indictment alleges that at one point a hacker gained access to Bolton's account where documents were stored and transmitted an seeming threat to cause "the largest scandal since Hillary [Clinton]'s emails were released".

Bolton entered a not guilty plea during a hearing on recently to eighteen distinct counts of improperly handling classified information.

Political Motivation or a Strong Case?

The schedule of his charge - coming on the heels of allegations against James - has revived concerns about external influence on the legal system.

Trump once suggested Bolton should be in prison, and called him a "disreputable person". Bolton, for his role, wrote a book about his experience in the Trump government that was sharply negative of the leader.

"There's no question that the timing of this charge, when paired with additional cases, has raised doubts about the strength of these charges, and why these counts are being filed at this time," said Jamil Jaffer, creator and executive director of the National Security Institute.

However, he added, "if the Justice Department is capable to demonstrate the facts alleged and demonstrate the material is correctly classified, his behavior may very well have broken the statute".

Charging such a senior official for mishandling classified documents is "uncommon" but not unprecedented, said Carrie Cordero, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

"Cases that involve classified information pose difficulties to prosecute, but they can and are filed against equally low-level and senior officials, from time to time," she explained.

Parallels to Investigations into Former President and Biden

Trump likewise faced allegations of improperly keeping sensitive materials at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and hindering their return, but that matter was eventually thrown out by a court official and negated by his re-election as president.

A independent investigator also determined that former President Joe Biden wrongfully stored sensitive materials from his time as second-in-command, but did not prosecute him.

Bolton's case bears similarities to Biden's sensitive materials matters, said Mr Lesko, who previously held a top national security position at the Justice Department.

Strict protocols govern the management of classified documents. To win a guilty verdict, the government must demonstrate that Bolton knew the material he was sending was restricted, and he had to intentionally transfer it to someone without authorization to receive it.

"Due to the classified nature of the information at issue in this matter, we lack a lot of details about why the government contends things like the personal notes and the additional material he shared by electronic message, and why there were classified," explained Mr Jaffer.

A More Conventional Prosecution

The procedure by which the DOJ initiated this case will be closely examined, after Trump publicly expressed his desire to see his critics prosecuted and some of those charges came to fruition.

But Mr Lesko indicated in Bolton's situation, prosecutors appear to have followed standard procedure.

"This Bolton prosecution and ultimately the charge appeared to have followed the standard process including the rules and norms within the DOJ," he said.

In contrast to Comey's short, concise charge, Bolton's was a increasingly "conventional" filing that "clearly sets forth the particulars concerning the circumstances and situation here," Mr Lesko said.

"It seems fairly consistent with a series of cases... where government officials mishandled and shared sensitive information."