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Ex-President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his wish to see opponents probed, applying pressure on the DOJ 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 leader wrote last month in a Truth Social post.

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

Each have subsequently been charged, in cases that numerous experts have stated appear to be driven by politics and difficult to win in legal proceedings.

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

"I would say, comparing Bolton's case to James' is like comparing apples to oranges," said Mark Lesko, a ex acting US attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

The Specifics of the Legal Situation

Bolton has been criminally indicted on national allegations pertaining to the supposed mishandling of sensitive materials. Since 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 contend that while there may be political motivations to target Bolton, the procedures used to secure an charge and the proof gathered against him indicate a possibly stronger case than the Justice Department presented against Comey.

"This misconduct that's being alleged is simultaneously more severe and seems to have occurred over a considerable period of time," said Carissa Byrne Hessick, a academic at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

During his tenure as Trump's security advisor, and following his 2019 White House departure, authorities claimed that Bolton placed the nation at risk by improperly keeping and transmitting sensitive documents to family members using unprotected methods, including AOL. Some of the materials were marked highly classified.

The indictment states that at a certain time a unauthorized user accessed to Bolton's system where files were kept and transmitted an seeming threat to cause "the largest scandal since Hillary [Clinton]'s emails were released".

Bolton entered a not guilty plea during a hearing on Friday to eighteen separate counts of mishandling classified information.

Political Motivation or a Substantial Case?

The timing of his indictment - coming on the heels of allegations against Comey - has revived concerns about political pressure on the legal system.

Trump previously implied Bolton should be in jail, and called him a "sleazebag". Bolton, for his part, authored a book about his time in the Trump administration that was highly critical of the leader.

"There's no question that the timing of this charge, when paired with others, has raised questions about the strength of these charges, and why these counts are being brought at this time," said Jamil Jaffer, founder and executive director of the National Security Institute.

Nevertheless, he added, "if the Justice Department is able to demonstrate the facts alleged and show the information is correctly designated, his conduct may very well have broken the law".

Prosecuting such a senior official for improperly handling classified documents is "rare" but not unprecedented, said Carrie Cordero, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

"Situations that concern sensitive materials present challenges to try, but they may and are filed against both low-level and high-level officials, from time to time," she said.

Parallels to Examinations into Former President and Biden

Trump similarly faced allegations of wrongfully storing sensitive materials at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida and obstructing their return, but that case was ultimately dismissed by a federal judge and negated by his return as president.

A independent investigator also found that former President Joe Biden improperly stored sensitive materials from his period as vice president, but did not prosecute him.

Bolton's case shares characteristics to Trump's classified documents issues, noted Mr Lesko, who previously held a senior national security position at the Justice Department.

Rigorous protocols regulate the handling of classified documents. To secure a conviction, the prosecution must prove 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 classified character of the information at issue in this case, we lack a lot of details about the reasons the government contends things like the diary entries and the additional material he communicated by electronic message, and why there were classified," explained Mr Jaffer.

A More Traditional Legal Action

The process by which the Justice Department initiated this case will be under scrutiny, after Trump openly posted his desire to see his critics prosecuted and some of those indictments materialized.

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

"The Bolton case and ultimately the indictment seemed to have followed the regular procedure including the rules and norms within the DOJ," he said.

In contrast to Comey's brief, concise indictment, Bolton's was a more "conventional" filing that "explicitly outlines the particulars concerning the circumstances and circumstances in this instance," Mr Lesko commented.

"It seems fairly consistent with a series of precedents... where public servants improperly handled and shared sensitive information."