Attorney and former U.S. ambassador Norm Eisen on MSNBC on October 16, 2025

President Donald Trump's Department of Justice on Thursday indicted former National Security Advisor John Bolton on 18 felony counts. And while Bolton's charging document is meatier than the recent indictments against two of Trump's other political opponents, one prominent legal expert poked several major holes in the DOJ's case.

On Thursday, attorney and former U.S. Ambassador Norm Eisen told an MSNBC panel that while the finer details of Bolton's indictment remain unclear due to them pertaining to classified documents, there are three major weaknesses in the DOJ's case against the former Trump administration official. He said the main argument Bolton's legal team will likely bring up is Trump's "revenge motive."

"Even if these [charges] are valid, that still gives rise to a vindictive prosecution," Eisen said, adding that "Donald Trump's own conduct was more serious" in his own classified documents case.

Eisen also pointed out that Bolton's prosecution was part of a "pattern," noting that both former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) were both indicted after Trump explicitly demanded it.

"This isn't an isolated revenge prosecution: It's the latest in a series," he said.

The former U.S. ambassador's third point was that the indictment is based on Bolton's diary entries, rather than direct transmission of sensitive intelligence. He noted that multiple presidents and presidential advisors have all kept private diaries, and that those diaries are "not the same thing as having documents with classified markings."

"As far as we can tell from this indictment, none of those were found in the house," Eisen said. "The fact that the Biden administration apparently investigated this and passed on the case, that's another reason to question what's going on here."

Eisen concluded that there was still a problem of Bolton being indicted by an "independent counsel." He acknowledged that while more than one DOJ prosecutor signed Bolton's charging documents (compared to Trump's interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia being the only one to sign indictments for Comey and James), the level of independence "should be investigated because of all of those badges of suspicion."

"It must be said: Bolton's very capable Abbe Lowell — one of the toughest fighters in the legal game — has denied the validity of this indictment," Eisen said. "So expect a brawl."

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