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

"We can't delay any longer, it's damaging our reputation and credibility," the president stated recently in a Truth Social message.

"I was impeached me, and charged me (five times!)" he said, mentioning the four criminal cases he faced after departing the White House in 2021 and James's lawsuit.

Both have since been charged, in situations that numerous experts have said seem to be driven by politics and difficult to win in legal proceedings.

But the most recent charges against a presidential opponent, former security advisor John Bolton, differ significantly, legal specialists and ex-prosecutors say.

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

The Specifics of the Legal Situation

Bolton has been formally charged on federal charges related to the supposed mishandling of sensitive materials. After departing the White House in 2019, he has become a vocal Trump critic, going so far as to describe him "stunningly uninformed" and unsuitable for office in his book.

Specialists contend that while there may be political reasons to go after Bolton, the procedures used to secure an charge and the evidence gathered against him suggest a possibly more substantial legal argument than the Justice Department brought against Comey.

"These actions that's being claimed is both more serious and appears to have taken place over a significant period of time," commented 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 put the nation at danger by wrongfully keeping and sending sensitive documents to family members using unprotected methods, including AOL. Some of the materials were labeled top secret.

The indictment alleges that at one point a hacker accessed to Bolton's account where files were stored and sent an apparent threat to cause "the largest controversy since Hillary [Clinton]'s emails were leaked".

Bolton pleaded not guilty during a hearing on Friday to eighteen separate charges of mishandling sensitive materials.

Political Motivation or a Strong Legal Argument?

The timing of his charge - coming on the heels of charges against James - has renewed questions about external influence on the legal system.

Trump once suggested Bolton should be in jail, and called him a "disreputable person". Bolton, for his role, wrote a book about his time in the Trump administration that was highly critical of the leader.

"Undoubtedly that the timing of this indictment, when combined with others, has raised doubts about the strength of these charges, and the reason these charges are being brought now," stated Jamil Jaffer, founder and executive director of the National Security Institute.

However, he added, "should the Justice Department is able to prove the facts stated and show the material is properly classified, his behavior may certainly have violated the law".

Prosecuting such a senior figure 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 classified information pose challenges to try, but they can and are brought against both low-level and high-level personnel, from occasionally," she explained.

Similarities to Investigations into Trump and Biden

Trump similarly faced allegations of improperly keeping sensitive materials at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and hindering their return, but that matter was ultimately dismissed by a court official and voided by his re-election as president.

A special counsel also determined that former President Joe Biden wrongfully maintained sensitive materials from his period as second-in-command, but failed to prosecute him.

Bolton's case shares characteristics to Biden's sensitive materials matters, noted Mr Lesko, who also held a top security role at the DOJ.

Rigorous protocols govern the management of classified documents. To secure a conviction, the prosecution must prove that Bolton was aware the information he was transmitting was restricted, and he had to knowingly transfer it to someone without authorization to receive it.

"Due to the classified character of the material at question in this matter, we lack a great deal of particulars about the reasons the prosecution believes things like the diary entries and the other material he communicated by email, and why there were restricted," said Mr Jaffer.

A Increasingly Traditional Prosecution

The process by which the Justice Department initiated this case will be under scrutiny, following Trump publicly posted his desire to see his political opponents charged and several of those indictments came to fruition.

But Mr Lesko said in Bolton's situation, prosecutors appear to have adhered to protocol.

"The Bolton prosecution and ultimately the charge seemed to have followed the regular process including the rules and standards within the Department of Justice," he said.

Unlike Comey's brief, two-page indictment, Bolton's was a more "conventional" filing that "explicitly outlines the particulars concerning the circumstances and circumstances here," Mr Lesko said.

"It seems fairly aligned with a long line of precedents... where public servants mishandled and shared sensitive information."