The Rupert Murdoch–owned Wall Street Journal has blasted Donald Trump’s revenge tour following the indictment of his longtime nemesis, John Bolton, and issued a warning to others who dare disagree with the president.
In a scathing editorial, the paper’s editorial board said there is “little doubt” retribution motivated Bolton’s indictment over allegations he mishandled classified documents, noting that Trump’s former national security adviser is an outspoken critic of the president.
“Opposing Donald Trump is a perilous business, but working for him can be equally as dangerous,” the board wrote. “That’s one lesson from Thursday’s indictment of Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton for mishandling classified documents.”
The board noted a key difference between Bolton and others included in Trump’s “revenge prosecution list”–former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, two other adversaries of the president who have been charged with lying to Congress and mortgage fraud, respectively.
“The latter two were part of concerted efforts to defeat or prosecute Mr. Trump,” the board wrote. “Mr. Trump recruited Mr. Bolton to work for him and cast him aside over policy disagreements. The lesson is that if you work for the president, he then sours on you and you criticize him, you are not safe.”
Bolton, whom Trump fired in 2019, was charged Thursday with eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention of NDI.
He is accused of sending classified information to family members via email and messaging apps during his tenure as national security adviser, as well as retaining sensitive materials at his Maryland home and Washington, D.C., office.
The indictment alleges that Bolton shared more than 1,000 pages of information “about his day-to-day activities” as national security adviser, including “top secret” details related to national defense.
Bolton is also accused of failing to notify the FBI that sensitive material may have been accessed after his email was allegedly hacked by Iran sometime between September 2019 and July 2021.
The Trump administration previously accused Bolton of mishandling classified materials during the president’s first term. Bolton was accused of publishing sensitive information in his 2020 book, The Room Where It Happened, which was highly critical of the president.
The Department of Justice opened an investigation into Bolton in September 2020, but the case was dropped in June 2021 under President Joe Biden, with no charges being brought.
In a statement following his indictment, Bolton said he had become “the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those [Trump] deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts.”
“These charges are not just about his focus on me or my diaries, but his intensive effort to intimidate his opponents, to ensure that he alone determines what is said about his conduct,” Bolton added.
The Journal’s editorial board concluded that if Bolton had praised Trump in his book, “it’s safe to say he wouldn’t have been indicted.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
