#Trump administration sues to block John Bolton’s tell-all book

The Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit against John Bolton on Tuesday to try to block the publication and sale of his new White House tell-all, arguing the former national security adviser’s memoir includes classified information that cannot be released to the public.

“This is a civil action by the United States to prevent Defendant John R. Bolton, a former National Security Advisor, from compromising national security by publishing a book containing classified information — in clear breach of agreements he signed as a condition of his employment and as a condition of gaining access to highly classified information and in clear breach of the trust placed within him by the United States Government,” read the beginning of the 27-page court filing with the US District Court in DC.

Bolton left the White House last September after clashing with the president over his policies regarding Ukraine, North Korea and Iran, among others.

He had hoped to publish the book, “The Room Where It Happened,” in early 2020.

But it underwent numerous and ongoing reviews for classified information by the National Security Council, and the date was pushed back to June 23.

“This is the book Donald Trump doesn’t want you to read. There hasn’t been a detailed, inside account on how this president makes decisions on a day-to-day basis, until now,” Simon & Schuster, the publisher, asserted last week. “He argues that the House committed impeachment malpractice by keeping their prosecution focused narrowly on Ukraine when Trump’s Ukraine-like transgressions existed across the full range of his foreign policy.”

Deputy White House counsel John Eisenberg told Bolton’s lawyers in a letter obtained by the Associated Press not to publish, warning: “As we advised your client when he signed the nondisclosure agreements, and as he should be well as aware as Assistant to the President for the National Security Affairs in this administration, the unauthorized disclosure of classified information could be exploited by a foreign power, thereby causing significant harm to the national security of the United States.”

Trump had said Monday that every conversation he has as president is classified — a declaration critics questioned — and threatened criminal charges against Bolton.