Senior DOJ leaders advocating for charging Trump critic John Bolton this week, sources say
Former White House national security adviser John Bolton arrives at his house in Bethesda
By Katelyn Polantz, Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN
(CNN) — Senior Justice Department leaders are advocating for a charge against President Donald Trump’s former adviser-turned-critic John Bolton this week, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.
Currently, the prosecutors think they could bring a stronger case by the end of the year against Bolton over the mishandling of national security documents, rather than pushing for a charge at this time.
It comes as Trump has called for the department to prosecute his political opponents, and as Justice Department prosecutors are looking at charging another adversary, former FBI Director Jim Comey.
Some political leadership at the Justice Department see the Bolton case as a way to charge a criminal case Trump would like to see to placate the president, another source told CNN.
One concern of bringing a case too early, however, is that it could damage the department’s ability to firm up otherwise strong charges, the sources said.
An attorney from the deputy attorney general’s office has been pressing the Maryland US attorney’s office this week to charge Bolton on or before Friday, according to the sources.
But prosecutors from the office and a top national security prosecutor from the Justice Department in Washington, DC, have pushed back on what they see as a too-aggressive timeline for a case to come together. One Justice Department official was considering pulling prosecutors off the case out of opposition to the deputy attorney general’s instruction this week.
Investigators previously collected many records from his home and office, some marked as classified, and they may need to take additional steps examining the evidence and interviewing witnesses before a case could be charged, the source told CNN.
Bolton’s lawyer Abbe Lowell has repeatedly said in recent public statements responding to the investigative activity that the records the former national security adviser had would have been typical of those kept by a long-time government official.
“The documents with classification markings from the period 1998 – 2006 date back to Amb. Bolton’s time in the George W. Bush Administration,” Lowell said in a statement on Wednesday. “An objective and thorough review will show nothing inappropriate was stored or kept by Ambassador Bolton.”
The Justice Department and lawyers for Bolton declined to comment.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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CNN’s Evan Perez contributed to this report.
