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Former President Donald Trump has consistently 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 cannot postpone further, it's killing our standing and credibility," the president wrote last month in a social media post.

"I was impeached twice, and indicted me (5 times!)" he declared, referencing the multiple legal proceedings he encountered after departing the White House in 2021 and James's lawsuit.

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

But the most recent allegations against a Trump critic, former security advisor John Bolton, differ significantly, legal experts and ex-prosecutors say.

"I would say, comparing Bolton's case to James' is like equating apples to oranges," said 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 national allegations related to the supposed improper handling of sensitive materials. After leaving the White House in 2019, he has become a outspoken presidential opponent, even to describe him "stunningly uninformed" and unsuitable for the presidency in his memoir.

Experts contend that while there may be political motivations to target Bolton, the methods used to obtain an charge and the proof compiled against him indicate a potentially stronger case than the Justice Department brought against James.

"These actions that's being alleged is both more serious and appears to have occurred over a considerable duration," said Carissa Byrne Hessick, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

During his time as Trump's national security adviser, and after his 2019 White House departure, prosecutors claimed that Bolton put the country at danger by wrongfully keeping and transmitting classified information to relatives using unprotected methods, including AOL. Several of the materials were marked highly classified.

The charge alleges that at a certain time a unauthorized user accessed to Bolton's system where documents were kept and transmitted an seeming threat to cause "the biggest controversy since Hillary [Clinton]'s emails were leaked".

Bolton pleaded not guilty during a hearing on recently to eighteen distinct charges of mishandling classified information.

Retribution or a Strong Legal Argument?

The timing of his charge - arriving on the tails of allegations against Comey - has revived concerns about external influence on the justice system.

Trump once suggested Bolton belonged in prison, and called him a "sleazebag". Bolton, for his part, authored a publication about his time in the Trump administration that was sharply negative of the leader.

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

However, he added, "if the DOJ is capable to prove the facts stated and show the information is correctly classified, his behavior may very well have broken the law".

Charging such a high-ranking official for mishandling sensitive materials is "uncommon" but not unprecedented, said Carrie Cordero, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

"Situations that concern sensitive materials pose challenges to prosecute, but they may and are brought against equally low-level and senior officials, from occasionally," she explained.

Similarities to Examinations into Trump and Biden

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

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

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

Rigorous protocols govern the handling of sensitive materials. To secure a conviction, the prosecution must prove that Bolton knew the material he was sending was classified, and he had to intentionally transfer it to someone not entitled to obtain it.

"Because of the classified character of the information at question in this case, we lack a lot of details about the reasons the government believes things like the diary entries and the additional material he shared by electronic message, and the reason there were classified," said Mr Jaffer.

A Increasingly Traditional Prosecution

The process by which the DOJ initiated this case will be closely examined, following Trump publicly expressed his wish to see his critics prosecuted and some of those indictments came to fruition.

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

"The Bolton prosecution and ultimately the indictment appeared to have observed the regular process including the regulations and standards within the DOJ," he stated.

Unlike Comey's brief, concise charge, Bolton's was a more "conventional" document that "clearly outlines the details involving the circumstances and circumstances in this instance," Mr Lesko said.

"It appears fairly consistent with a long line of cases... where government officials improperly handled and shared sensitive information."