A federal judge has rejected a White House request to block the upcoming book by former national security adviser John Bolton.
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in Washington, D.C., denied the Trump administration’s request for a restraining order on the book on Saturday. In his ruling, Lamberth noted that hundreds of thousands of copies of the book have already been shipped. The book, called “The Room Where It Happened,” is set to be released Tuesday.
Lamberth added that although the book would not be blocked, Bolton failed to have the book reviewed to make sure no classified information was released.
“While Bolton’s unilateral conduct raises grave national security concerns, the government has not established that an injunction is an appropriate remedy,” Lamberth wrote.
The new book details a laundry list of corruption and ineptitude within the Trump administration. Bolton alleges that Trump sought help from China to win reelection, offered to help Turkey’s leader avoid a Justice Department probe, had a fraught relationship with the U.K. and had little knowledge of world events, among other things.
“We’ve never seen such a senior former official saying that the president they served was fundamentally unfit and unethical and ignorant and therefore incapable of doing the job,” Max Boot, a conservative commentator for The Washington Post, said of the book.
For all his new candor about what goes on in the White House, Bolton was largely silent while playing an active role in the Trump administration. And when he was called upon by House Democrats to testify during Trump’s impeachment probe, he refused. That hasn’t stopped Bolton from saying more should have been done during the impeachment probe.
As explosive details about the Trump administration have trickled out from Bolton’s upcoming book, the president has attacked Bolton as a “washed up guy” and a “wacko.”
Following Saturday’s latest blow to Trump, the president predictably rushed to Twitter to air his grievances.
Bolton “must pay a very big price for this, as others have before him,” Trump threatened. “This should never [sic] to happen again!!!”
