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The Trump administration filed suit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday to stop former National Security Advisor John Bolton from publishing his memoir on his time in the White House.
Bolton was the National Security Advisor from April 9, 2018, until September 10, 2019. In November 2019 Bolton entered into a book deal with Simon & Schuster for the rights to a book that he was writing about his time as National Security Advisor.
Bolton initially sent the book to the National Security Council (NSC) for pre-publication review, which identified classified information for Bolton to remove. Bolton and NSC exchanged the book multiple times with changes determined by the NSC. However, without finishing the pre-publication review, Bolton determined to release the book on June 23. The NSC first learned of this plan through media reports on June 7.
The complaint alleges that the book contains classified information that is in violation of non-disclosure agreements that Bolton signed as a condition of his employment and as a condition to gain access to highly classified information. It states that Bolton is required never to divulge classified information without receiving authorization from the government. This is applicable even after the termination of employment, unless he receives a written release.
According to the complaint,
[T]he publication and release of The Room Where it Happened would cause irreparable harm, because the disclosure of instances of classified information in the manuscript reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage, or exceptionally grave damage, to the national security of the United States.
The Trump administration is seeking an order requiring Bolton to complete the pre-publication process, “thereby protecting the national security of the United States.”