{"id":135336,"date":"2025-10-17T13:20:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T21:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/17\/john-bolton-plays-stupid-games-wins-stupid-prizes\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T13:20:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T21:20:20","slug":"john-bolton-plays-stupid-games-wins-stupid-prizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/17\/john-bolton-plays-stupid-games-wins-stupid-prizes\/","title":{"rendered":"John Bolton Plays Stupid Games, Wins Stupid Prizes"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a smart guy, John Bolton is kind of an idiot. <\/p>\n

If the indictment<\/a> that dropped yesterday is correct, he sent regular emails to his wife and daughter for more than a year detailing every interesting thing that happened to him as National Security Advisor \u201cFor Diary in the future!!!\u201d And by \u201cdiary\u201d he meant the book that he pitched to publishers five seconds after being fired in September of 2019.<\/p>\n

Lots of the interesting things that he was chitchatting about on his AOL and Gmail accounts allegedly involved national defense information:<\/p>\n

\n

On or about July 23, 2018, BOLTON sent Individuals 1 and 2 a message that stated, \u201cMore stuff coming!!!\u201d A few minutes later, BOLTON sent Individuals 1 and 2 a 24-page document which described information that BOLTON learned while National Security Advisor. Less than three hours later, BOLTON sent Individuals 1 and 2 a follow-up message that stated, \u201cNone of which we talk about!!!\u201d In response, Individual 1 sent a message that stated, \u201cShhhhh.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to the indictment, Iranian hackers accessed these emails and even taunted Bolton, saying \u201cThis could be the biggest scandal since Hillary\u2019s emails were leaked, but this time on the GOP side!\u201d<\/p>\n

Joke\u2019s on you, Iranian hackers!<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The entire premise of Bolton\u2019s book is that Trump is vengeful and stupid. His LiveJournal coincides with Trump\u2019s shakedown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for dirt on Joe Biden. And yet Bolton seems to have been remarkably unconcerned about blowback as he prepared to embarrass the shit out of the guy willing to leave thousands of human beings vulnerable to Russian attacks for political advantage. Bolton was, as he said, in The Room Where It Happened<\/a>\u00a0(affiliate link), and yet it seems not to have occurred to him that it could happen to him<\/em>. Which is even weirder, since it<\/em> had just happened to former CIA Director David Patraeus, who detailed his adventures in real time to his biographer (with whom he was having an affair), and later pleaded to mishandling classified information.<\/p>\n

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Everyone can read Bolton’s indictment & judge as they want, but this is far, far weaker (and more customary of conduct by senior govt officials) than allegations against President Trump in stealing & storing marked classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark Zaid, Esq (@markzaidesq.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-10-16T22:35:47.481Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Did it not occur to Bolton that he was handing Trump a giant stick to beat him with? <\/p>\n

Back in 2020, Trump contented himself with boning the prepublication review<\/a> of Bolton\u2019s book, bottling it up until Bolton abandoned the process and went to press without the government\u2019s blessing. <\/p>\n

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Washed up Creepster John Bolton is a lowlife who should be in jail, money seized, for disseminating, for profit, highly Classified information. Remember what they did to the young submarine sailor, but did nothing to Crooked Hillary. I ended up pardoning him \u2013 It wasn\u2019t fair!<\/p>\n

\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Now Trump is back in the White House, and weaponizing the DOJ against all his enemies. And the fact that everyone does it this way<\/em> will not protect you from an 18-count indictment for violating the Espionage Act.<\/p>\n

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I agree with Mark on everything here. Both that this is weaker than the Trump case AND that this is extremely commonplace for senior officials. Doesn’t mean in any way that it’s LEGAL for senior officials, just that as he said elsewhere, a lot of them do it, and they really shouldn’t.<\/p>\n

\u2014 National Security Counselors \ud83d\udd75 (@nationalsecuritylaw.org)<\/a> 2025-10-17T00:57:34.660Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A quick glance at the signature blocks makes it clear that this is not some bullshit charge<\/a> brought by an insurance lawyer because Tish James let her niece live in a tiny house in Norfolk.<\/p>\n

Bolton\u2019s indictment is signed by the highly competent US Attorney for Maryland, Kelly Hayes, Thomas Sullivan, Chief of the District\u2019s National Security and Cybercrime Section, plus four more lawyers:<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

James\u2019s indictment sig block:<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Comey\u2019s indictment sig block:<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Abbe Lowell, who is representing Bolton, scoffs that there is nothing here. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese charges stem from portions of Amb. Bolton\u2019s personal diaries over his 45-year career \u2014 records that are unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021,\u201d he told the Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And that may be true! But fact that a whole passel of lawyers were willing to put their names on it, when no one at EDVA would touch the Comey and James indictments with a 10-foot pole, suggests that Bolton is going to be in for a rough ride.<\/p>\n

US v. Bolton<\/a> [Docket via Court Listener]<\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post John Bolton Plays Stupid Games, Wins Stupid Prizes<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Photo by Alex Wong\/Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For a smart guy, John Bolton is kind of an idiot. <\/p>\n

If the indictment<\/a> that dropped yesterday is correct, he sent regular emails to his wife and daughter for more than a year detailing every interesting thing that happened to him as National Security Advisor \u201cFor Diary in the future!!!\u201d And by \u201cdiary\u201d he meant the book that he pitched to publishers five seconds after being fired in September of 2019.<\/p>\n

Lots of the interesting things that he was chitchatting about on his AOL and Gmail accounts allegedly involved national defense information:<\/p>\n

\n

On or about July 23, 2018, BOLTON sent Individuals 1 and 2 a message that stated, \u201cMore stuff coming!!!\u201d A few minutes later, BOLTON sent Individuals 1 and 2 a 24-page document which described information that BOLTON learned while National Security Advisor. Less than three hours later, BOLTON sent Individuals 1 and 2 a follow-up message that stated, \u201cNone of which we talk about!!!\u201d In response, Individual 1 sent a message that stated, \u201cShhhhh.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to the indictment, Iranian hackers accessed these emails and even taunted Bolton, saying \u201cThis could be the biggest scandal since Hillary\u2019s emails were leaked, but this time on the GOP side!\u201d<\/p>\n

Joke\u2019s on you, Iranian hackers!<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The entire premise of Bolton\u2019s book is that Trump is vengeful and stupid. His LiveJournal coincides with Trump\u2019s shakedown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for dirt on Joe Biden. And yet Bolton seems to have been remarkably unconcerned about blowback as he prepared to embarrass the shit out of the guy willing to leave thousands of human beings vulnerable to Russian attacks for political advantage. Bolton was, as he said, in The Room Where It Happened<\/a>\u00a0(affiliate link), and yet it seems not to have occurred to him that it could happen to him<\/em>. Which is even weirder, since it<\/em> had just happened to former CIA Director David Patraeus, who detailed his adventures in real time to his biographer (with whom he was having an affair), and later pleaded to mishandling classified information.<\/p>\n

Did it not occur to Bolton that he was handing Trump a giant stick to beat him with? <\/p>\n

Back in 2020, Trump contented himself with boning the prepublication review<\/a> of Bolton\u2019s book, bottling it up until Bolton abandoned the process and went to press without the government\u2019s blessing. <\/p>\n

Now Trump is back in the White House, and weaponizing the DOJ against all his enemies. And the fact that everyone does it this way<\/em> will not protect you from an 18-count indictment for violating the Espionage Act.<\/p>\n

A quick glance at the signature blocks makes it clear that this is not some bullshit charge<\/a> brought by an insurance lawyer because Tish James let her niece live in a tiny house in Norfolk.<\/p>\n

Bolton\u2019s indictment is signed by the highly competent US Attorney for Maryland, Kelly Hayes, Thomas Sullivan, Chief of the District\u2019s National Security and Cybercrime Section, plus four more lawyers:<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

James\u2019s indictment sig block:<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Comey\u2019s indictment sig block:<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Abbe Lowell, who is representing Bolton, scoffs that there is nothing here. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese charges stem from portions of Amb. Bolton\u2019s personal diaries over his 45-year career \u2014 records that are unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021,\u201d he told the Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And that may be true! But fact that a whole passel of lawyers were willing to put their names on it, when no one at EDVA would touch the Comey and James indictments with a 10-foot pole, suggests that Bolton is going to be in for a rough ride.<\/p>\n

US v. Bolton<\/a> [Docket via Court Listener]<\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a smart guy, John Bolton is kind of an idiot. If the indictment that dropped yesterday is correct, he sent regular emails to his wife and daughter for more than a year detailing every interesting thing that happened to him as National Security Advisor \u201cFor Diary in the future!!!\u201d And by \u201cdiary\u201d he meant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":135290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-17-at-11.19.29-AM-1024x553-u7dxo4.png?fit=1024%2C553&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}