The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit to stop the publication of John Bolton’s new book, which is set to be released next week.
The Trump administration asked a federal judge on Tuesday to order former national security adviser John Bolton to stop the publication of his upcoming book on his White House tenure, arguing in a lawsuit that Bolton had breached a contract and was risking the exposure of classified information.
The suit, filed in Washington, DC, federal court, alleges that Bolton’s 500-plus page manuscript was “rife with classified information,” and prosecutors say that Bolton backed out of an ongoing White House vetting process for the book that he’d been obligated to do as a result of agreements he’d signed.
“(Bolton) struck a bargain with the United States as a condition of his employment in one of the most sensitive and important national security positions in the United States Government and now wants to renege on that bargain by unilaterally deciding that the prepublication review process is complete and deciding for himself whether classified information should be made public,” prosecutors write.
The lawsuit marks the latest White House effort against Bolton after months of back-and-forth between the National Security Council and Bolton’s representatives over whether the book contains classified information. Simon & Schuster previously announced that Bolton’s book, “In the Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” would be released on June 23.
Bolton’s book has already shipped to warehouses ahead of its scheduled release. He has taped an interview with ABC slated to air Sunday. And a source close to him says he is intent on publishing the book as scheduled Tuesday, meaning he expects to deal with any ramifications from the administration in the aftermath, not before.
AG Barr plainly said this week that Bolton had not completed the review process and that they were going to try and get him to do that. This lawsuit is most certainly part of that process.
Bolton has apparently hired the ACLU to fight his case in court, tweeting their statement a little while ago:
Mark Levin, who has certainly liked Bolton in the past, as have we, had this to say about Bolton’s ACLU statement:
Via TRS
