Bolton Indictment: Overreach, Revenge, Accountability?

TOP LINE

This week, former National Security Advisor John Bolton walked into a federal court in Beltsville Maryland and pleaded not guilty to an 18-count indictment.  Prosecutors allege Bolton mishandled, retained and transmitted classified information from his time in the White House.

Reviewing the 26 page indictment, a detail immediately caught my attention. 

Bolton is facing criminal prosecution under the Espionage Act. Passed in 1917, the law was designed to prosecute those who aid the enemy and/or interfere with military operations. More recently, the statute has been used to prosecute national security leaks.

What’s striking is that the same federal criminal statutes were central to the FBI’s 2016 investigation of Hillary Clinton’s personal email server as well as the 2024 Special Counsel investigation of former President Joe Biden.  It should be noted that in 2023 then former President Trump was also charged under the Espionage Act for retaining classified records at Mar-a-Lago.

As regular readers of the newsletter know, both Clinton and Biden were accused of mishandling classified information and putting national security sources and methods at risk, yet neither faced criminal charges.

The evidence strongly suggests that the Espionage Act has been selectively applied, in some case, for political reasons.

DEEP DIVE

It is hard to forget July 2016 for reasons I’ll explain. 

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The presidential contest between then candidates Trump and Clinton had reached fever pitch.  Days earlier, in what was described as an ‘unplanned meeting’ then Attorney General Loretta Lynch had a private conversation with Bill Clinton on the tarmac at the Phoenix Airport.

Days later, I was among the Justice Department beat reporters summoned by then FBI Director James Comey (who was indicted in September for allegedly lying to congress about his role in media leaks) for a press event. I have always called it Comey’s ‘public statement’ rather than a news conference because journalists were not permitted to ask questions. I concluded the reporters were there as ‘props’ to add an air of legitimacy.

For nearly 16 minutes, Comey explained that Clinton retained and transmitted classified information including highly restricted Special Access Programs that put sources at risk including human spies.    

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