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Ex-President Donald Trump has consistently shown his wish to see critics investigated, exerting pressure 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 killing our reputation and credibility," the president wrote last month in a social media message.

"I was impeached me, and indicted me (five times!)" he said, referencing the four criminal cases he encountered after departing the White House in 2021 and James's civil case.

Both have subsequently been charged, in cases that many specialists have said appear to be politically motivated and difficult to succeed in court.

But the latest charges against a Trump critic, former national security adviser John Bolton, differ significantly, legal specialists and ex-prosecutors assert.

"In my opinion, comparing Bolton's case to Comey's is like comparing two different things," stated Mark Lesko, a former 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 alleged mishandling of classified information. After leaving the White House in 2019, he has become a outspoken Trump critic, going so far as to call him "stunningly uninformed" and unfit for office in his memoir.

Specialists say that while there may be political reasons to target Bolton, the procedures used to obtain an charge and the proof gathered against him suggest a potentially stronger legal argument than the Justice Department brought against James.

"This misconduct that's being claimed is both more severe and seems to have taken place over a considerable period of time," commented Carissa Byrne Hessick, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Throughout his tenure as Trump's security advisor, and after his 2019 White House departure, prosecutors claimed that Bolton put the country at danger by wrongfully keeping and transmitting sensitive documents to family members using insecure means, including AOL. Some of the materials were labeled highly classified.

The indictment states that at one point a unauthorized user accessed to Bolton's account where files were stored and sent an seeming warning to cause "the largest scandal since Hillary [Clinton]'s emails were leaked".

Bolton pleaded not guilty during a court appearance on recently to 18 separate counts of improperly handling classified information.

Political Motivation or a Strong Case?

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

Trump once implied Bolton should be in prison, and called him a "disreputable person". Bolton, for his role, authored a publication about his time in the Trump government that was highly critical of the president.

"Undoubtedly that the timing of this charge, when paired with additional cases, has raised doubts about the strength of these allegations, and the reason these counts are being filed at this time," said Jamil Jaffer, creator and executive director of the National Security Institute.

However, he added, "should the Justice Department is capable to prove the facts alleged and show the information is correctly classified, his conduct may very well have broken the law".

Charging such a senior figure for mishandling classified documents is "uncommon" but not without precedent, said Carrie Cordero, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

"Situations that involve classified information present difficulties to prosecute, but they can and are brought against both low-level and high-level personnel, from occasionally," she explained.

Parallels to Examinations into Former President and President

Trump similarly faced allegations of wrongfully keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and obstructing their recovery, but that case was ultimately dismissed by a court official and voided by his return as president.

A independent investigator additionally found that former President Joe Biden improperly stored classified documents from his time as vice president, but did not criminally charge him.

Bolton's situation bears similarities to Trump's sensitive materials matters, said Mr Lesko, who previously held a senior national security position at the DOJ.

Rigorous procedures regulate the handling of classified documents. To secure a guilty verdict, the government must demonstrate that Bolton knew the material he was sending was classified, and he had to knowingly transfer it to someone not entitled to receive it.

"Because of the sensitive nature of the material at issue in this case, we lack a great deal of details about the reasons the government believes elements like the personal notes and the other information he communicated by electronic message, and the reason there were restricted," explained Mr Jaffer.

A More Conventional Legal Action

The procedure by which the DOJ initiated this case will be under scrutiny, after Trump openly expressed his desire to see his critics prosecuted and some of those charges materialized.

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

"The Bolton case and ultimately the charge seemed to have observed the regular procedure including the rules and norms within the DOJ," he stated.

In contrast to Comey's short, two-page indictment, Bolton's was a more "conventional" filing that "clearly outlines the details involving the circumstances and situation in this instance," Mr Lesko commented.

"It appears fairly consistent with a series of cases... where public servants improperly handled and transmitted sensitive information."