Remember when mishandling classified documents was a big deal?

Donald Trump was accused of doing it following his first presidential term, so Biden’s Department of Justice sent a heavily armed FBI squad to raid his residence, Mar-a-Lago, and sift through Melania’s lingerie drawer. 

But when then-President Joe Biden was accused of doing almost exactly the same thing as Trump, Special Counsel Robert Hur refused to press charges because he was concerned a jury wouldn’t convict what he called a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Now former National Security Advisor during Trump’s first term, John Bolton — who has since turned into a TDS-riddled never-Trumper — is arguing that even though he pleaded guilty in June to “willfully retaining national defense information” and sharing it with his wife and daughter as he prepared to write his memoir, he should only get probation because he “has lived an exemplary life—one dedicated to public service, family, honor, and love of country.”

I’m guessing that if he were a prosecutor, he'd eat mosquito larvae rather than let Trump off for similar reasons. 

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The Department of Justice and Bolton filed dueling legal briefs in recent days, with Bolton requesting leniency and the DOJ demanding that the former advisor serve five years in the slammer because he “systematically exposed this nation’s most sensitive of secrets to cyber theft.”

Independent journalist Catherine Herridge reports on the DOJ’s allegations:

Her summation of the DOJ's arguments is long, but here are some salient points:

'Defendant Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States. He has exposed his country to harm..'

'Over the course of 17 months, Mr. Bolton systematically exposed this nation’s most sensitive of secrets to cyber theft...'

'Given his decades of experience with classified information, Mr. Bolton’s actions...demonstrate aggravated, willful conduct.'

'And unlike many cases involving violations of 18 U.S.C. § 793, this Court does need not to speculate whether harm to national security ultimately materialized..'

KEY ARGUMENT: "Mr. Bolton’s ongoing exposure of real-time classified national defense information, by transmission over unsecure, non-governmental communications jeopardized the most sensitive information held by the United States."

Bolton’s team has different ideas. Here’s the opening paragraph of his response. He may have made mistakes, but he’s actually a saint, you see:

For five decades John Bolton has lived an exemplary life—one dedicated to public service, family, honor, and love of country. He and his family have sacrificed their time together and even their security to support Ambassador Bolton’s desire to serve his country and make it and the world a safer place. ...

Against this backdrop and all Ambassador Bolton has done, he stands before the Court deeply remorseful and having taken full responsibility for his lapse in judgment in mishandling classified information kept in his personal diary, shared only with his wife and daughter.

Bolton is facing up to five years in prison and is expected to be sentenced on December 4, 2026.

Bolton has agreed to pay a $2.25 million fine.

So many rabid Trump haters like former FBI Director James Comey, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and California Gov. Gavin Newsom act holier-than-thou and above it all while relentlessly attacking the president. When you get a look into their own closets, however, they turn out to be quite messy.

If Trump had pled guilty to sharing national security secrets with his wife and daughter, you can be quite sure that Bolton wouldn’t be showing up with his new friends on CNN to argue that he should only get probation.

It’s funny how their morals change, depending on which side they’re supporting at the moment.