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Ex-President Donald Trump has consistently shown his desire to see opponents probed, 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 damaging our reputation and trustworthiness," the leader wrote recently in a Truth Social post.

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

Each have since been indicted, in cases that numerous specialists have said appear to be driven by politics and difficult to succeed in court.

But the latest allegations against a Trump critic, ex national security adviser John Bolton, stand apart, legal specialists and ex-prosecutors assert.

"I would say, contrasting Bolton's charges to James' is like equating two different things," said Mark Lesko, a former acting US attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

This Specifics of Bolton's Case

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

Experts contend that while there may be political motivations to target Bolton, the procedures used to obtain an indictment and the evidence compiled against him indicate a potentially more substantial case than the Justice Department brought against Comey.

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

Throughout his tenure as Trump's national security adviser, and following his 2019 White House exit, authorities claimed that Bolton placed the country at danger by wrongfully retaining and transmitting classified information to relatives using insecure means, including AOL. Several of the documents were marked highly classified.

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

Bolton entered a not guilty plea during a court appearance on recently to 18 distinct charges of improperly handling sensitive materials.

Political Motivation or a Strong Legal Argument?

The schedule of his indictment - coming on the tails of allegations against James - has revived concerns about political pressure on the justice system.

Trump previously implied Bolton belonged in prison, and described him a "sleazebag". Bolton, for his role, authored a book about his time in the Trump administration that was highly critical of the president.

"There's no question that the schedule of this indictment, when paired with additional cases, has prompted doubts about the strength of these charges, and why these charges are being brought now," said Jamil Jaffer, founder and director of the National Security Institute.

However, he continued, "should the Justice Department is able to demonstrate the allegations alleged and show the material is correctly classified, his conduct may certainly have violated the statute".

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

"Cases that concern sensitive materials present difficulties to try, but they may and are brought against both junior and senior personnel, from occasionally," she explained.

Parallels to Examinations into Trump and Biden

Trump similarly encountered charges of improperly storing 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 negated by his re-election as leader.

A independent investigator additionally determined that ex-President Joe Biden wrongfully maintained classified documents from his period as second-in-command, but failed to criminally charge him.

Bolton's case shares characteristics to Biden's classified documents issues, said Mr Lesko, who previously held a top security position at the Justice Department.

Rigorous protocols govern the management of sensitive materials. To secure a guilty verdict, the prosecution must demonstrate that Bolton knew the information he was transmitting was restricted, and he had to intentionally transmit it to someone without authorization to receive it.

"Because of the sensitive character of the information at question in this case, we don't have a lot of particulars about the reasons the prosecution believes things like the personal notes and the additional material he communicated by electronic message, and the reason there were restricted," said Mr Jaffer.

A More Conventional Prosecution

The procedure by which the Justice Department initiated this case will be closely examined, after Trump publicly expressed his wish to see his critics prosecuted and several of those charges materialized.

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

"The Bolton case and eventually the charge appeared to have followed the regular process including the regulations and norms within the Department of Justice," he stated.

Unlike Comey's brief, concise indictment, Bolton's was a increasingly "conventional" filing that "clearly sets forth the particulars concerning the circumstances and circumstances in this instance," Mr Lesko said.

"It seems reasonably aligned with a long line of cases... where government officials improperly handled and transmitted classified material."