Rising This Week: Bolton's road to trial begins

James Comey's case returns to court on Wednesday, and the week ends with John Bolton's initial status conference on Friday.

John Bolton (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Stay tuned for a week filled with live coverage on All Rise News.

Don’t miss developments in the cases of John Bolton, James Comey and Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Exactly one month has passed since federal prosecutors unsealed charges accusing Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton of transmitting and retaining national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act.

Bolton’s criminal docket has seen little movement since he pleaded not guilty on Oct. 17, the day after those allegations were revealed.

Unlike the cases of ex-FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, Bolton’s prosecution is being handled by an experienced U.S. Attorney and assistants from the District of Maryland, but Bolton asserts that he’s the latest target in a series of politically motivated charges by Donald Trump’s critics. Bolton’s lead attorney Abbe Lowell also represents New York Attorney General James, on whose behalf Lowell argued last week in Alexandria, Va.

So far, the docket in Bolton’s criminal case reveals little about his defense strategy. The only motions so far relate to the handling of classified information, in a case where Bolton stands accused of sending “diary”-like entries from his notes during Trump’s first term to his wife and daughter over unsecured emails and text messages. Prosecutors say that the notes included information that was classified up to the Top Secret level, and Bolton’s email account was compromised by Iranian government hackers.

In one subsection of his indictment, prosecutors revisit Bolton’s now-ironic commentary about other officials’ handling of sensitive and classified information. In 2017, Bolton echoed Trump’s attack line on his erstwhile opponent: “If I had done at the State Department what Hillary Clinton did, I’d be wearing an orange jumpsuit now.” Bolton gave this stunned reaction to Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal to discuss attack plans years later: “I’m just without words to understand how that could have happened.” (Prosecutors say Bolton also sent sensitive information over a private messaging application.)

Last week, Bolton participated in an interview with The Texas Tribune Festival, where he recused himself from any commentary about the allegations against him. But Bolton didn’t shy away from criticizing Trump.

“He doesn’t want information. He wants to do what he wants to do,” Bolton said. “And he has people around him who are prepared to say ‘yes sir.’”

In his memoir “The Room Where It Happened,” Bolton described Trump’s habit of doing favors for “dictators he liked,” including Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Bolton emphasized that Trump’s foreign policy begins and ends with his personal interests.

“When people talk about a Trump doctrine in international affairs, it’s a complete fantasy to think that there’s any coherence to it all,” Bolton said. “It’s all through the prism of what benefits Donald Trump.”

Much about the government’s evidence against Bolton remains to be seen, including whether or how his alleged mishandling of sensitive information compromised national security. Bolton’s indictment, however, hasn’t dulled the edge of his criticism of Trump in the lead-up to his trial.

On the road again

Last week, big news broke inside a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va.

That’s where a federal judge considering whether to disqualify Comey’s prosecutor Lindsey Halligan and dismiss his case revealed that grand jury minutes were silent from 4:28 p.m. through the return of his indictment around 6:40 p.m. Eastern Time on Sept. 25.

Halligan now insists that the grand jury was deliberating for more than two hours. Some former prosecutors are skeptical: Grand jury deliberations tend to last minutes because of the relatively low burden of proof for probable cause and the fact that unanimity isn’t necessary to indict.

On Wednesday, I’ll be in court again to see whether another federal judge sheds more light on the controversy.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick Fitzgerald also received a copy of Comey’s grand jury minutes. The judge had previously dressed down prosecutors for their “indict first, investigate later” mentality in his case.

On Thursday, there may be another evidentiary hearing in the habeas corpus case filed by Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and I plan to cover any proceedings live on the ground in Greenbelt, Md. If confirmed, the hearing could determine whether Abrego will be deported.

The next day, I will also be on the ground in the same courtroom on Friday for Bolton’s pre-trial conference in Maryland. Subscribers’ support makes this in-depth, live reporting possible by defraying the costs of travel, accommodations, and life on the road. They also unlock full access to this newsletter.

Every week, All Rise News previews the week ahead with listings of high-profile court hearings, protests, and opportunities for civic engagement. That’s because these proceedings aren’t private affairs for attorneys, prosecutors, plaintiffs, defendants, judges, administrators and journalists. The courts belong to the public, which has every right to observe the compelling and historic hearings that shape our world.

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