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The merits of the case against John Bolton · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: We return now to our top story. The Department of
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  Speaker 1: Justice has indicted President Trump's former national security advisor, John Bolton.
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  Speaker 1: CBS News is Bradley Blackburn, as it details, is highly respected.
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  Speaker 2: John Bolton was once in President Trump's inner circle as
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  Speaker 2: US national security advisor. In a Maryland court room, a
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  Speaker 2: grand jury indicted him in a federal investigation into the
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  Speaker 2: potential mishandling of classified information. The twenty six page indictment
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  Speaker 2: charges Bolton with eighteen criminal counts alleging the transmission of
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  Speaker 2: national defense information and retention of national defense information.
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  Speaker 3: Classified documents that are classified documents.
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  Speaker 1: As the Fast Journey has said, look, these documents date
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  Speaker 1: back to twenty years and you know most of these
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  Speaker 1: were approved.
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  Speaker 2: The Justice Department's investigation picked up steam in August when
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  Speaker 2: the FBI searched Bolton's home in Bethesda, Maryland, as well
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  Speaker 2: as his office in DC. Unsealed court papers showed agents
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  Speaker 2: found classified records and confidential documents. They removed phones, hard drives,
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  Speaker 2: and computers as part of the search. At the time,
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  Speaker 2: President Trump denied knowing about the raid, but questioned Bolton's intelligence.
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  Speaker 2: He's a not a smart guy, but he could be
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  Speaker 2: a very unpatriotic.
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  Speaker 4: I'm we're going to find out.
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  Speaker 2: Bolton served in the first Trump administration for less than
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  Speaker 2: a year and a half. His book about the experience
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  Speaker 2: angered the White House, and the administration tried to stop
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  Speaker 2: the publication, claiming it contained classified information. The matter was
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  Speaker 2: investigated and later dropped during the Biden administration, though a
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  Speaker 2: federal judge noted Bolton had quote gambled with the national
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  Speaker 2: security of the United States. Bolton denies any wrongdoing. His
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  Speaker 2: indictment is the third in less than a month targeting
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  Speaker 2: one of the president's critics. Bradley Blackburn's CBS News New.
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  Speaker 1: York and CBS News legal contributor Caroline Police, He joins
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  Speaker 1: us Now, Carolyn, very good to see you. So this
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  Speaker 1: case deals with the handling of the classified material. What
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  Speaker 1: would prosecutors need to prove to a jury to get
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  Speaker 1: a conviction here?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, just first off, Nancy, these are really serious charges.
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  Speaker 4: I would note, although we're sort of thinking about him
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  Speaker 4: in towards of this bucket, of these three foes of
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  Speaker 4: President Trump that have been indicted in really just three weeks,
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  Speaker 4: this could be a different case we're talking about here.
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  Speaker 4: The indictment is quite fulsome and it lays out, as
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  Speaker 4: was noted by Bradley, they're eighteen violations of the Espionage
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  Speaker 4: Act for both retention and transmission of classified information.
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  Speaker 3: And basically it tells the story of.
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  Speaker 4: John Bolton since twenty eighteen transmitting these daily diary entries
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  Speaker 4: and transcribing his written notes of classified information and turning
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  Speaker 4: them over to what's being reported as his wife and
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  Speaker 4: sister and excuse me, daughter in this group chat over AOL.
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  Speaker 4: And so what the government will need to prove in
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  Speaker 4: these types of cases is that these types of retention
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  Speaker 4: and transmission were knowing and willful. Remember, we've we've heard
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  Speaker 4: about unlawful retention of classified information from President Biden, from
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  Speaker 4: Vice President Trump, from you know Trump obviously himself was indicted.
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  Speaker 3: On just such charges. But the issue really is the intention.
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  Speaker 4: And what's going to be really hard here for John
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  Speaker 4: Fulton to argue is that he didn't know that using
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  Speaker 4: or handling this type of information in this manner was
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  Speaker 4: not legal. He has spent a lifetime in national security,
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  Speaker 4: and he has there's almost action in the indictment about
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  Speaker 4: speaking publicly about how important it is to handle classified
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  Speaker 4: information in the proper.
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  Speaker 1: Way and Carolyn, We just got a statement moment ago
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  Speaker 1: from John Bolden saying, here, I look forward to the
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  Speaker 1: fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his
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  Speaker 1: abuse of power. The Department of Justice, though, has also
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  Speaker 1: charged President Trump's rivals James Comey and Letitia James. Could
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  Speaker 1: Bolm's team here claim that perhaps there's a pattern and
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  Speaker 1: use that in their defense.
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  Speaker 4: Definitely, it sounds like, according to that statement, it sounds
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  Speaker 4: like he will invoke some sort of selective and or
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  Speaker 4: vindictive prosecution defense. Those defenses would, i would say, are
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  Speaker 4: much stronger in the Tiss James and James Comy indictments,
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  Speaker 4: one because they were the subject of that of what
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  Speaker 4: was supposed to be a personal DM to Pam Bondi,
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  Speaker 4: the Attorney General, saying go after these these people. But
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  Speaker 4: also that you know several career prosecutors resigned in that district,
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  Speaker 4: those the Eastern District of Virginia where those indictments came down,
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  Speaker 4: and Trump installed one of his personal attorneys previously that
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  Speaker 4: was working at the White House in that district to
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  Speaker 4: indict here.
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  Speaker 3: It's a little bit of a different story.
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  Speaker 4: We have a career prosecutor here bringing these charges, bringing
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  Speaker 4: this indictment. It's been a year's long investigation was going
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  Speaker 4: on in the Biden administration, and you have a really
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  Speaker 4: fulsome indictment laying out the specific documents and the charges.
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  Speaker 4: So I think there's more teeth here, but certainly he
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  Speaker 4: will make that argument.
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  Speaker 3: That is selective and vindictive prosecution.
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  Speaker 4: Certainly he has been on Trump's hit list since he
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  Speaker 4: left that first stint in his first administration.
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  Speaker 1: Caroline Police, thank you very much.