Former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who served during the first Trump administration, was indicted this week in federal court in Maryland. The eighteen crimes the grand jury says he must stand trial for are all related to mishandling classified material in violation of the Espionage Act. While many critics denounced the prosecution as payback from Trump for Bolton's disloyalty, it was the Biden/Garland DOJ that started the investigation yielding the indictments.
Bolton: "Off with their heads!"
Mr. Bolton said of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who was charged with breaking the same law, "I hope he gets 176 years!" The infamous war hawk also said Chelsea Manning should be put to death. Bradley Manning gave WikiLeaks thousands of classified documents and later changed their name and gender expression after being convicted of violating the Espionage Act.
Bolton's indictment benchmarks quite a reversal of fortune. He was at the very top of the United States' security establishment for a year until Trump fired him. Then Bolton became a prominent administration critic and, from the MAGA perspective, a disloyal danger. This was established with the publication of The Room Where It Happened, a memoir Bolton penned. It’s searingly critical of President Trump: "[H]e has no political philosophy, and does not have "policies" as conventionally understood. Searching for policy coherence is fruitless, since he cares almost exclusively about his own interests, and refuses to take responsibility for decisions he makes that go awry."
Trump revoked any security clearance Bolton may have held via an executive order issued in his second term. Because James Comey and Letitia James have also recently been charged by the Trump/Bondi DOJ, it's been easy for critics to lump in Bolton and say it's all Trump settling scores. After all, Trump did initiate an investigation into his former appointee over the tell-all book. CNN, however, gives lie to the idea, reporting that multiple sources claim these investigations were separate.
Breeches aid Iran
If the indictment is accurate, Mr. Bolton created electronic files with classified information on them in violation of the law. Then those files were accessed by Iranian intelligence, who hacked Bolton's personal email account. He's also charged with compounding the damage by not reporting it. After news of the indictment broke, President Trump commented: "He's, you know, a bad person. I think he's a bad guy."
While the Trump administration may not have initiated the chain of events leading to this indictment, it has run with the ball to bring this prosecution forward. Does that make it a political prosecution? We need to recognize all prosecutions as political. That's why we elect DAs, and why United States Attorney General nominees get such scrutiny. We Americans have a near-perpetual criminal liability due to the thousands upon thousands of laws and regulations. Then all that matters is that your side wins, and you can put the other side in prison.
Who Is John Galt?
Ayn Rand wrote a scene in Atlas Shrugged in which a not-so-petty tyrant explained the value of innumerable laws where full compliance is impossible: "The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? "
Are we there yet in this country? Yes. The phenomenon was laid out by a giant in civil rights litigation, Harvey Silverglate, who co-founded the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression: "The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague."
Mr. Silverglate's words were published in his 2011 book Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent. Sadly, things have only gotten worse. Mr. Bolton and Ms. James will suffer terribly expensive and invasive ordeals as they fight to retain their liberty – as have Mr. Trump, Mr. Bannon, General Flynn, and others. Perhaps as the gander gets goosed, they can all flock together, embracing our founders' vision of liberty.
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