Former National Security adviser John Bolton speaks on stage during a public discussion at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina on February 17, 2020.
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A federal judge denied efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to block the release of former national security adviser John Bolton’s memoir. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth made it clear in his Saturday morning ruling that while the White House may have a point that the book could reveal classified information that could harm the country, it was simply too late to do anything about it. “With hundreds of thousands of copies around the globe—many in newsrooms — the damage is done. There is no restoring the status quo,” wrote Lamberth of the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia.
Even though the ruling marked a victory for Bolton, who will now be able to continue with the scheduled release of his memoir on Tuesday, Lamberth repeatedly criticized the former national security adviser in his 10-page ruling. The judge said that “Bolton’s unilateral conduct raises grave national security concerns” as he suggested Bolton could have to give up his $2 million advance and he could face prosecution for going ahead with publication before receiving the final notice from the White House that a prepublication review to detect classified information had been finished.
Reviewing passages that the administration claims contain classified information led Lamberth to conclude that “defendant Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States.” Bolton, Lamberth added, “has exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability-” At the same time though, “these facts do not control the motion before the Court. The government has failed to establish that an injunction will prevent irreparable harm.”
Bolton has long denied the book contained any classified information and said that he effectively received the all-clear in April from the White House official who had been tasked with clearing the book for publication. But then political appointees made it their mission to block publication of the book before the November election. If that was effectively the case, Bolton could have chosen to file suit against the government. “Instead, he opted out of the review process before its conclusion,” Lamberth wrote. Bolton, in the end, made a “bet,” the judge said. “If he is right and the book does not contain classified information, he keeps the upside” in terms of publicity and sales “but if he is wrong, he stands to lose his profits from the book deal, exposes himself to criminal liability, and imperils national security,” the judge added, before concluding: “Bolton was wrong.”
Trump took to Twitter shortly after the ruling to celebrate what he characterized as a “BIG COURT WIN against Bolton.” The president claimed that considering the book had already been widely distributed there was nothing the judge could do to stop the distribution, “BUT, strong & powerful statements & rulings on MONEY & on BREAKING CLASSIFICATION were made,” he added. Earlier, the president said that Bolton “must pay a very big price” for his actions. “This should never to happen again!!!”
Charles Cooper, a lawyer for Bolton who has long said the administration was trying to prevent Bolton from revealing embarrassing information, praised the ruling but disagreed with the judge’s claim that his client had not complied with the review process. “We welcome today’s decision by the court denying the government’s attempt to suppress Ambassador Bolton’s book,” Cooper said. “We respectfully take issue, however, with the court’s preliminary conclusion at this early stage of the case that Ambassador Bolton did not comply fully with his contractual prepublication obligation to the government, and the case will now proceed to development of the full record on that issue. The full story of these events has yet to be told—but it will be.”
