I went to prison for defending the Constitutional separation of powers.

John Bolton (an occasional contributor to The Hill) may well wind up in prison, too if investigators uncover evidence and prosecutors decide to bring charges over his alleged classified disclosures.

When Bolton wrote his book, "The Room Where It Happened" — reportedly receiving a $2 million advance — he wasn’t just dishing gossip. He was sharing information about Oval Office conversations and national security that should have stayed secret — either by law or under executive privilege.

A federal judge already spelled this out in black and white. In June 2020, Judge Royce Lamberth warned that Bolton had “likely jeopardized national security by disclosing classified information in violation of his nondisclosure agreement obligations.” The judge only allowed the book to hit shelves because “the horse is already out of the barn,” given the publication of excerpts and the shipment of 200,000 copies of the book.

Lamberth went further in his ruling, stressing that Bolton had “gambled with the national security of the United States” and that the government was “likely to succeed on the merits” of proving he unlawfully disclosed classified material. Translation: Bolton didn’t just break trust — he may have also........

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