by
Alex
Wong/Getty
Images)
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
“For
Diary
in
the
future!!!”
And
by
“diary”
he
meant
the
book
that
he
pitched
to
publishers
five
seconds
after
being
fired
in
September
of
2019.
Lots
of
the
interesting
things
that
he
was
chitchatting
about
on
his
AOL
and
Gmail
accounts
allegedly
involved
national
defense
information:
On
or
about
July
23,
2018,
BOLTON
sent
Individuals
1
and
2
a
message
that
stated,
“More
stuff
coming!!!”
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,
“None
of
which
we
talk
about!!!”
In
response,
Individual
1
sent
a
message
that
stated,
“Shhhhh.”
According
to
the
indictment,
Iranian
hackers
accessed
these
emails
and
even
taunted
Bolton,
saying
“This
could
be
the
biggest
scandal
since
Hillary’s
emails
were
leaked,
but
this
time
on
the
GOP
side!”
Joke’s
on
you,
Iranian
hackers!
The
entire
premise
of
Bolton’s
book
is
that
Trump
is
vengeful
and
stupid.
His
LiveJournal
coincides
with
Trump’s
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 (affiliate
link),
and
yet
it
seems
not
to
have
occurred
to
him
that
it
could
happen
to
him.
Which
is
even
weirder,
since
it
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.
Did
it
not
occur
to
Bolton
that
he
was
handing
Trump
a
giant
stick
to
beat
him
with?
Back
in
2020,
Trump
contented
himself
with
boning
the
prepublication
review
of
Bolton’s
book,
bottling
it
up
until
Bolton
abandoned
the
process
and
went
to
press
without
the
government’s
blessing.
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
will
not
protect
you
from
an
18-count
indictment
for
violating
the
Espionage
Act.
A
quick
glance
at
the
signature
blocks
makes
it
clear
that
this
is
not
some
bullshit
charge
brought
by
an
insurance
lawyer
because
Tish
James
let
her
niece
live
in
a
tiny
house
in
Norfolk.
Bolton’s
indictment
is
signed
by
the
highly
competent
US
Attorney
for
Maryland,
Kelly
Hayes,
Thomas
Sullivan,
Chief
of
the
District’s
National
Security
and
Cybercrime
Section,
plus
four
more
lawyers:
James’s
indictment
sig
block:
Comey’s
indictment
sig
block:
Abbe
Lowell,
who
is
representing
Bolton,
scoffs
that
there
is
nothing
here.
“These
charges
stem
from
portions
of
Amb.
Bolton’s
personal
diaries
over
his
45-year
career
—
records
that
are
unclassified,
shared
only
with
his
immediate
family,
and
known
to
the
FBI
as
far
back
as
2021,”
he
told
the
Washington
Post.
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.
US
v.
Bolton
[Docket
via
Court
Listener]
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.