Ty Cobb: Bolton prosecution ‘clearly not’ revenge
Former White House attorney Ty Cobb said the Trump administration’s prosecution of former national security adviser John Bolton was “clearly not” only based on revenge because the case had legal merit.
“This case would not have been brought but for [President] Trump’s revenge because we know the Biden Justice Department declined to bring this case, quite likely to avoid burning the means and methods through which they extracted the Iranian intelligence, which is a valid governmental concern,” Cobb told CNN.
“But having said that, what we know now is, you know, Bolton insisting that this is, you know, purely revenge,” he said. “That’s clearly not the case.”
Federal prosecutors indicted Bolton on Thursday on 18 counts related to retaining and transmitting national defense information.
Prosecutors alleged Bolton kept information related to national defense at his home after exiting the Trump administration in September 2019 and that he sent more than a thousand pages of “diary-like entries” containing sensitive information to two relatives.
The Justice Department has also indicted former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James in the past month. In a statement after his indictment, Bolton said he had become “the latest target.”
“Dissent and disagreement are foundational to America’s constitutional system, and vitally important to our freedom,” Bolton said. “I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power.”
He compared the Trump administration to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s authoritarian government, saying “Trump 2” embodied what the head of Stalin’s secret police once said: “You show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.”
Cobb disagreed with Bolton’s comments, saying his case differed from James’s and Comey’s indictments because the materials taken from Bolton’s home during an August FBI raid were “highly consequential.”
“So this shouldn’t come as a news flash that, you know, there’s a potential crime here,” Cobb said.
Cobb also said Trump’s personal grudge and disparaging comments against Bolton likely wouldn’t help his defense during the prosecution.
“Trump knows it’s wrong,” Cobb said, referring to statements the president made criticizing Bolton following his indictment. He said Trump’s legal counsel and judges in civil and criminal cases had “made it plain that he was not supposed to do that.”
“But it’s not going to derail the prosecution,” Cobb continued. “It won’t save him.”