Well, a warning shot was fired by President Trump regarding a new book about his administration. John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, did what all former White House officials do when they leave: get a nice advance to pen a book about their time working for the president. Yet, the president feels that the work, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” which is slated to be released in eight days, contains classified information. Trump appeared not happy at all about the book possibly detailing conversations he had with Bolton, which is why the Trump administration is seeking an injunction (via WaPo):
JUST IN: President Trump on John Bolton: "I will consider every conversation with me as president highly classified. So that would mean if he wrote a book and if the book gets out, he’s broken the law and I would think he would have criminal problems." https://t.co/zwR0mGYjzI pic.twitter.com/JLftDITYXQ
— The Hill (@thehill) June 15, 2020
The Justice Department filed a suit Tuesday seeking to block the release of a book by former White House national security adviser John Bolton, asserting that his much-anticipated memoir contains classified material.
The moves sets up legal showdown between President Trump and the longtime conservative foreign policy hand, who alleges in his book that the president committed “Ukraine-like transgressions” in a number of foreign policy decisions, according his publisher.
“The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” is due to go on sale June 23, and has already been shipped to distribution centers across the country.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, accuses Bolton of breach of contract and asks the court to prohibit him from disclosing any information in the book or releasing it in any form.
[…]
Trump told reporters Monday that it was “highly inappropriate” for Bolton to write the book.
“I will consider every conversation with me as president highly classified,” he said. “So that would mean that, if he wrote a book and if the book gets out, he’s broken the law and I would think that he would have criminal problems. I hope so.”
“Maybe he’s not telling the truth,” added the president, speaking at a White House roundtable on protecting senior citizens during the pandemic. “He’s been known not to tell the truth, a lot.”
NEWS: The U.S. has filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against John Bolton, seeking to block the publication of his book, which the suit alleges contains classified information. w/@aviswanatha https://t.co/1Rja4jqtFw
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) June 16, 2020
LATEST: The Trump administration sued former adviser John Bolton to block the publishing of his book. Bolton's tell-all memoir is set to be published on June 23 pic.twitter.com/lGm15AvAzN
— Bloomberg QuickTake (@QuickTake) June 16, 2020
Wow — The Trump adminsitration is expected to seek an injunction to block John Bolton’s book from being released in its current form, per ABC News.
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) June 15, 2020
The book goes on sale in eight days.https://t.co/2fOuCutF7d
This past winter, Bolton became the focus of the failed impeachment push by congressional Democrats. That effort was grounded in the allegation that Trump had tied foreign aid to Ukraine to a possible probe into the corruption allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. It was another fiasco on the Hill and if you thought the so-called “evidence” of Trump-Russia collusion was shoddy, this circus act really won the gold in turning something out of nothing. Trump beat back the impeachment push, but Bolton was sought for testimony on this matter. Senate Republicans blocked it. After Trump emerged victoriously, Bolton admitted if he had been allowed to testify, it wouldn’t have helped Democrats.