John Bolton stood before a federal judge in Greenbelt, Maryland on Friday morning, pleading not guilty to 18 counts of mishandling classified information. The 76-year-old former national security adviser faces up to 180 years in prison for keeping diary notes about his time in the Trump White House—notes that were reviewed and cleared by White House classification officials before appearing in his 2020 book.
As news of the indictment broke, Lev Parnas—who knows this playbook intimately—invoked a phrase he coined back in 2019: Bolton is “going through some things.”
That expression was born when Trump and Rudy Giuliani targeted Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch for removal from Ukraine. When Ukrainians asked Lev what was happening to her, he gave them the answer that would become shorthand for political destruction: she’s “going through some things.” It was code for a hit job, a phrase that acknowledged the machinery of destruction without naming the destroyers.
Now that same machinery has turned on Bolton.
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Revenge Served Cold
Lev Parnas spent 90 minutes this morning on our Week in Review show explaining exactly how this works—because he’s already survived it.
Parnas went to prison for donating $2,500 to Pete Sessions using a corporate credit card. The same administration that prosecuted him watched Elon Musk contribute $350 million to Trump’s campaign. One man’s house got raided at dawn by a SWAT team. The other man now runs a government efficiency office with access to classified systems while simultaneously operating a social media platform that amplifies Russian propaganda.
The difference wasn’t the crime. The difference was choosing the wrong side.
Retribution In Real Time
Bolton’s indictment follows the same pattern. His book was reviewed by Ellen Knight, the White House’s classification expert. Trump was furious it revealed his incompetence and pressured Knight for hours to say classified information had been disclosed. She refused—because there wasn’t any. The Biden Justice Department declined to prosecute. But Trump never forgot, and the moment he returned to power, the FBI raided Bolton’s home and office. Thursday’s indictment was inevitable.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board called it what it is: retribution. “If Bolton had praised Trump in his book,” they wrote, “it’s safe to say he wouldn’t have been indicted.”
Trump Strikes Fear
Here’s what makes this machinery so effective: most of the laws Bolton is accused of violating exist in a gray zone that nearly everyone in government operates within. As Lev explained this morning, the federal code is written so broadly that prosecutors could indict almost anyone if they wanted to. Tax law, campaign finance rules, classification protocols—they’re all interpretive minefields where selective enforcement is the norm.
Trump hasn’t created new laws. He’s weaponized the existing ones by purging career prosecutors and installing loyalists who will indict his enemies while ignoring identical behavior by his allies. He cleared out the IRS agents and DOJ attorneys not to stop weaponization but to ensure the weapons only fire in one direction.
Putin Calls, Trump Jumps
While Bolton’s indictment dominated headlines, Trump was orchestrating another performance on the world stage. On Thursday, Vladimir Putin called. Hours later, Trump announced a summit in Budapest within two weeks and suddenly reversed course on sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine—weapons his Defense Secretary had just spent two days in Europe promising to NATO allies.
The pattern is unmistakable. When Trump faces uncomfortable scrutiny—this time over his Epstein connections—Putin throws him a lifeline by offering a meeting. It happened in Alaska. It’s happening again in Budapest. Each time, Trump jumps on command while Ukrainians keep dying and Zelensky keeps making futile pilgrimages to Washington hoping for weapons that will never arrive.
The Plan: Prolong Suffering, Then Claim Victory
Lev described the plan as it was explained to him by sources: prolong Ukraine’s suffering, put them on their knees, then let Trump ride in as the savior who brokers Putin’s peace. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent two days in Europe promising Tomahawks to NATO countries. Then Putin made one phone call, and Trump announced he doesn’t have enough Tomahawks for America’s own stockpile.
No follow-up questions from the press about what America needs them for. No questions about why the Defense Secretary was overseas selling weapons Trump now claims don’t exist in sufficient numbers.
A War At Home
Lev made the stakes tangible. He described parents screaming at his kids during football games, making political gestures designed to intimidate. Strangers approaching his wife in supermarkets telling her he should be rotting in prison. Someone cutting them off in traffic this week, screaming obscenities because they recognized him.
“We’re living in a war environment,” he said.
That environment exists because Trump has given permission for it. Whether the harassment is coordinated or stochastic, the effect is the same: people who speak out face consequences that extend far beyond legal jeopardy. Their businesses suffer. Their families endure harassment. Their physical safety becomes questionable.
No Kings, No Thieves, No Tyrants
This weekend, the No Kings protests will fill streets in cities around the world. Dean Blundell closed our show this morning with a warning and a call to action: Trump will look for any excuse to arrest protesters, to strip them of First, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment protections. But the march must happen anyway.
“Get into good trouble,” Dean said, channeling John Lewis. “No kings, no tyrants. We decide. We, the people.”
While millions prepare to march for democracy, people are dying in Ukraine for democracy. Journalists, influencers, and citizens everywhere are working to expose authoritarianism wherever it emerges. The fight isn’t abstract anymore. It’s at the grocery store, at kids’ football games, in the boats being blown apart in the Caribbean, in the courtrooms where political enemies face decades in prison for offenses their accusers commit with impunity.
Every donation is an act of solidarity with the people of Ukraine. It says: You are not forgotten. We stand with you.
Support the Kharkiv Hygiene Campaign
Catch the full Week in Review conversation with Dean Blundell, Lev Parnas, and Zev Shalev at deanblundell.substack.com and levparnas.substack.com.
