WASHINGTON – A federal judge cleared the way for publication of a book critical of Donald Trump written by former White House national security adviser John Bolton, ruling that with hundreds of thousands of copies already distributed, it would be futile to stop it.
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth criticized Bolton for not waiting until the completion of the Trump administration’s review process meant to prevent the release of national security information. Lamberth said the former White House aide had “gambled with the national security of the United States.”
But in his decision, he wrote that it was too late to halt Bolton’s book titled, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.”
“With hundreds of thousands of copies around the globe — many in newsrooms — the damage is done. There is no restoring the status quo,” Lamberth wrote.
Trump’s Justice Department went to court this week to block publication, saying Bolton’s manuscript contained classified information. Bolton and his supporters described the lawsuit as an effort to suppress the book and punish the author over the many criticisms of Trump.
In its lawsuit, the administration accused Bolton of breach of contract by seeking to publish the book before the review process was complete.
The former national security adviser accused Trump of making foreign policy decisions based solely on what would benefit him politically.
Bolton also wrote that Trump had suggested a willingness to interfere with criminal investigations of foreign companies in order to appeal to foreign leaders, including those in China and Turkey.
Bolton wrote that Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to buy more American agriculture products because it would help him with U.S. farmers who are key to his re-election.
The book is set to be released Tuesday.
In promoting the White House memoir, the publisher Simon & Schuster said Bolton describes a president “for whom getting reelected was the only thing that mattered, even if it meant endangering or weakening the nation.”
Bolton wrote that he was that he was “hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by reelection calculations.”
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Contributing: The Associated Press
