Attorney General Bill Barr’s Dept. of Justice has just filed a lawsuit against John Bolton, attempting to block publication of the tell-all book penned by President Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor.
But the Trump DOJ may have trouble with its lawsuit, given the President’s very public animus toward Bolton as recently as yesterday.
“I would think he would have criminal problems. I hope so,” Trump, speaking about Bolton’s publication of his book, told reporters on Monday. “Maybe he’s not been telling the truth. He’s been known not to tell the truth.” Trump also claimed, “I will consider every conversation with me as president as highly classified,” which is legally impossible.
CNN White House Correspondent Jeremy Diamond notes Bolton’s publisher submitted the manuscript to the National Security Council, which is standard pre-publication practice, back in December. “Since then, Bolton & WH have been locked in a dispute over whether the book contains classified information. Bolton pushed back initial publication date, but is now moving forward,” Diamond reports.
In the very first line of the DOJ’s complaint it admits Bolton was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which is a requirement that is unprecedented in an other administration. It may also be unenforceable.
The DOJ is also demanding a federal court order Bolton to admit he “was not authorized to disclose” information in his book “because he has not completed prepublication review and because it contains classified information.”
Whether or not it contains classified information, or information that was classified when the book was submitted for publication, is unknown but given Bolton’s decades of experience, unlikely. What is likely, as the publisher has already suggested, is the book is very damaging to Trump’s reelection prospects.
Bolton’s attorney calls the move “a transparent attempt to use national security as a pretext to censor Mr. Bolton, in violation of his constitutional rights to speak on matters of the utmost public import,” The Wall Street Journal adds.
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