A federal judge has ruled that John Bolton may proceed in releasing his book about his time in Donald Trump’s administration, but warned the former national security advisor’s conduct “raises grave national security concerns.”
“For reasons that hardly need to be stated, the Court will not order a nationwide seizure and destruction of a political memoir,” DC District Judge Royce Lamberth wrote in his ruling. He warned, however, that “without securing final approval from nationals intelligence authorities,” Bolton may have caused “irreparable harm” to the country.
Bolton is still facing a civil case over possibly violating his non-disclosure agreement with the book, which is set to be released on June 23. The president has claimed his former administration official has classified information in his book he is not allowed to share and he should “pay a big price” for publishing that content.
Lamberth says if it is confirmed that classified information is indeed in the pages of the book then Bolton could risk losing profits from the work and open himself up to potential criminal prosecution.
Bolton’s lawyer nonetheless hailed the ruling as a victory, though pushed back against accusations that the author “did not comply fully with his contractual prepublication obligation to the Government.”
The president also celebrated the ruling in Saturday tweets and called it a “BIG COURT WIN” despite the book being allowed to proceed. He promised Bolton will have “bombs dropped on him” for his conduct.
….Bolton broke the law and has been called out and rebuked for so doing, with a really big price to pay. He likes dropping bombs on people, and killing them. Now he will have bombs dropped on him!
