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Former President Donald Trump has consistently shown his wish to see opponents probed, exerting pressure on the Justice Department to prosecute ex FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

"We can't delay any longer, it's killing our reputation and credibility," the president wrote last month in a Truth Social message.

"They impeached me, and charged me (five times!)" he said, referencing the four criminal cases he faced after leaving the White House in 2021 and James's civil case.

Each have subsequently been indicted, in situations that many experts have stated appear to be driven by politics and difficult to win in legal proceedings.

But the most recent allegations against a presidential opponent, ex security advisor John Bolton, stand apart, legal experts and former prosecutors say.

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

This Specifics of the Legal Situation

Bolton has been formally charged on national allegations pertaining to the supposed mishandling of sensitive materials. Since departing the White House in 2019, he has become a outspoken Trump critic, going so far as to call him "remarkably ignorant" and unsuitable for the presidency in his memoir.

Specialists contend that while there may be political reasons to target Bolton, the methods used to secure an charge and the evidence gathered against him indicate a possibly more substantial legal argument than the DOJ presented against James.

"This misconduct that's being alleged is simultaneously more severe and appears to have occurred over a considerable period of time," said Carissa Byrne Hessick, a academic at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

During his tenure as Trump's national security adviser, and after his 2019 White House departure, prosecutors alleged that Bolton put the nation at danger by improperly retaining and sending sensitive documents to family members using unprotected methods, including AOL. Some of the documents were marked highly classified.

The charge states that at one point a hacker gained access to Bolton's account where files were kept and transmitted an apparent warning to cause "the largest scandal since Hillary [Clinton]'s emails were released".

Bolton pleaded not guilty during a court appearance on Friday to eighteen distinct charges of mishandling sensitive materials.

Retribution or a Substantial Case?

The timing of his indictment - coming on the tails of allegations against Comey - has revived questions about external influence on the legal system.

Trump previously implied Bolton should be in jail, and called him a "sleazebag". Bolton, for his part, authored a book about his time in the Trump government that was sharply negative of the leader.

"There's no question that the timing of this charge, when combined with additional cases, has prompted doubts about the validity of these allegations, and the reason these counts are being filed at this time," stated Jamil Jaffer, creator and director of the National Security Institute.

However, he added, "should the Justice Department is capable to demonstrate the allegations stated and show the information is correctly designated, his behavior may certainly have violated the law".

Prosecuting such a senior official for mishandling classified documents is "rare" but not without precedent, noted Carrie Cordero, a expert at the Center for a New American Security.

"Cases that involve sensitive materials present challenges to prosecute, but they can and are brought against equally low-level and high-level personnel, from time to time," she explained.

Parallels to Examinations into Trump and Biden

Trump similarly encountered allegations of improperly keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida and obstructing their recovery, but that case was eventually dismissed by a court official and negated by his re-election as president.

A independent investigator also determined that ex-President Joe Biden wrongfully maintained classified documents from his period as vice president, but failed to criminally charge him.

Bolton's case bears similarities to Trump's sensitive materials issues, said Mr Lesko, who previously held a senior security role at the Justice Department.

Strict protocols regulate the handling of sensitive materials. To win a guilty verdict, the prosecution must demonstrate that Bolton knew the information he was sending was classified, and he had to intentionally transmit it to someone not entitled to receive it.

"Due to the sensitive nature of the material at issue in this matter, we don't have a great deal of particulars about the reasons the prosecution contends things like the personal notes and the other material he communicated by email, and the reason there were restricted," said Mr Jaffer.

A Increasingly Conventional Prosecution

The procedure by which the Justice Department initiated this legal action will be closely examined, following Trump openly expressed his wish to see his critics prosecuted and some of those indictments came to fruition.

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

"This Bolton case and eventually the indictment appeared to have observed the regular process including the regulations and norms within the DOJ," he stated.

Unlike Comey's brief, concise indictment, Bolton's was a increasingly "conventional" document that "clearly outlines the particulars involving the facts and situation here," Mr Lesko said.

"It seems reasonably aligned with a series of precedents... where government officials mishandled and transmitted sensitive information."