#Mike Pompeo blasts John Bolton as a ‘traitor’ ahead of new book release

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted former national security adviser John Bolton as a “traitor” – days away from the release of his new book that includes unflattering claims about Trump and his administration.

“I’ve not read the book, but from the excerpts I’ve seen published, John Bolton is spreading a number of lies, fully-spun half-truths, and outright falsehoods,” Pompeo said in a statement. “It is both sad and dangerous that John Bolton’s final public role is that of a traitor who damaged America by violating his sacred trust with its people.”

“To our friends around the world: you know that President Trump’s America is a force for good in the world,” he added.

Pompeo’s rebuke comes as the Department of Justice prepares for an emergency court hearing to block the book’s release — and Peter Navarro, Trump’s top trade adviser blasted it as “deep swamp revenge porn.”

Bolton claims that Pompeo privately attacked Trump during the president’s first meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a June 2018 summit in Singapore.

According to Bolton’s account, after Trump told Kim that he would seek Senate ratification of any agreement with North Korea, Pompeo slipped Bolton a note calling the president “so full of s–t.”

Pompeo later remarked that Trump’s efforts with Kim have “zero probability of success,” Bolton added.

“I agreed,” Bolton wrote, according to CNN.

But Trump told The Wall Street Journal Thursday he didn’t buy Bolton’s story.

“I have no strain with Pompeo. No, I have a very good relationship with Pompeo,” he said, later noting that “Pompeo and Bolton had a terrible relationship.”

John Ratcliffe, Trump’s director of national intelligence, issued a statement Wednesday night saying Bolton’s “unauthorized disclosures of classified information damages our national security.”

But Bolton insisted that the administration’s efforts weren’t about national security, saying in an ABC News interview clip — set to air in full Sunday — that he went through a rigorous, four-month review to make sure his book didn’t include any classified information.

“When I wrote the book, to begin with, I was very conscious to avoid putting in anything that I thought could be deemed classifiable,” he said.

He explained that he thinks the president is worried “because he knows it will be factual and he doesn’t want the facts out on the record.”

“The president isn’t worried about foreign governments reading this book,” he added. “He’s worried about the American people reading this book.”