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Ex-President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to see critics probed, exerting pressure on the DOJ to charge former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

"We cannot postpone any longer, it's killing our reputation and credibility," the president wrote last month in a social media post.

"They impeached me, and indicted me (5 times!)" he said, mentioning the four criminal cases he encountered after departing the White House in 2021 and James's lawsuit.

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

But the latest charges against a presidential opponent, ex national security adviser John Bolton, differ significantly, legal specialists and former prosecutors say.

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

This Specifics of Bolton's Case

Bolton has been criminally indicted on federal charges pertaining to the supposed mishandling of classified information. Since leaving the White House in 2019, he has emerged as a outspoken Trump critic, even to describe him "stunningly uninformed" and unfit for the presidency in his memoir.

Specialists say that while there may be political motivations to go after Bolton, the methods used to obtain an charge and the evidence compiled against him suggest a potentially stronger case than the DOJ brought against Comey.

"These actions that's being claimed is simultaneously more serious and seems to have taken place over a significant duration," commented Carissa Byrne Hessick, a academic at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

During his time as Trump's national security adviser, and following his 2019 White House departure, prosecutors alleged that Bolton put the nation at risk by wrongfully retaining and sending classified information to relatives using insecure means, including AOL. Some of the materials were marked highly classified.

The charge states that at a certain time a unauthorized user accessed to Bolton's account where documents were stored and sent an apparent warning to cause "the biggest scandal since Hillary [Clinton]'s emails were leaked".

Bolton entered a not guilty plea during a court appearance on Friday to 18 distinct charges of mishandling sensitive materials.

Retribution or a Substantial Legal Argument?

The timing of his charge - coming on the tails of charges against James - has revived questions about political pressure on the justice system.

Trump once suggested Bolton should be in prison, and called him a "disreputable person". Bolton, for his part, authored a book about his time in the Trump administration that was sharply negative of the leader.

"Undoubtedly that the schedule of this charge, when combined with additional cases, has raised questions about the validity of these charges, and the reason these charges 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 stated and demonstrate the material is correctly designated, his behavior may certainly have broken the statute".

Prosecuting such a senior figure for improperly handling 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 filed against both low-level and senior personnel, from time to time," she explained.

Similarities to Investigations into Trump and Biden

Trump similarly encountered charges of wrongfully storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and obstructing their return, but that case was eventually dismissed by a court official and negated by his return as leader.

A special counsel also found that ex-President Joe Biden improperly maintained classified documents from his period as second-in-command, but did not prosecute him.

Bolton's situation bears similarities to Trump's classified documents issues, noted Mr Lesko, who also held a senior national security position at the Justice Department.

Rigorous procedures regulate the management of classified documents. To win a guilty verdict, the prosecution must demonstrate that Bolton was aware the material he was sending was classified, and he had to knowingly transmit it to someone without authorization to obtain it.

"Because of the classified character of the information at issue in this case, we lack a great deal of details about why the prosecution believes elements like the personal notes and the additional material he shared by electronic message, and why there were classified," explained Mr Jaffer.

A More Conventional Legal Action

The procedure by which the Justice Department initiated this legal action will be closely examined, following Trump openly posted his desire to see his critics prosecuted and several of those charges came to fruition.

But Mr Lesko said in Bolton's case, authorities appear to have adhered to standard procedure.

"The Bolton prosecution and eventually the charge appeared to have followed the standard process including the regulations and norms within the Department of Justice," he said.

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

"It seems reasonably consistent with a series of precedents... where public servants mishandled and transmitted sensitive information."