WASHINGTON – White House security officials threatened to block publication of John Bolton’s book unless the former national security adviser deletes information that is classified.
In a letter to Bolton’s attorney, the National Security Council said it determined that the book – news of which roiled President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial – includes “top secret” items that could undermine national security. The NSC did not specify what those passages were.
Under commitments Bolton made when he accepted the job as national security adviser, the letter says, “the manuscript may not be published or otherwise disclosed without the deletion of this classified information.”
The NSC said it would work with Bolton on revisions to the book, which has prompted demands for his testimony in the Senate impeachment trial.
Bolton attorney Chuck Cooper declined to comment on the NSC letter.
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Bolton’s team submitted the manuscript to the NSC a month ago for a standard review to see whether the book contains information that should not be made public.
“The manuscript appears to contain significant amounts of classified information,” says the reply Wednesday signed by Ellen Knight, senior director for records, access and information security management.
Administration officials said Trump and his legal team have not seen the Bolton manuscript and did not participate in the review.
In the submission to the NSC, Cooper said he and associates did not believe the book contained any classified information.
The New York Times reported Sunday that Bolton’s book alleges that Trump demanded Ukraine investigate a political rival in exchange for foreign aid, one of the accusations in the impeachment case against the president.
Trump’s critics said the president is desperately trying to prevent Bolton’s information from becoming public and wondered whether the NSC letter is part of that effort.
“Nobody works this hard to keep the truth from coming out unless the truth is devastating,” said Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
Trump warned Senate Republicans on Wednesday not to let Democrats “play” them into calling witnesses for the impeachment trial.
Some Republicans said they might be interested in hearing from witnesses, including Bolton, perhaps enough to force subpoenas this week.
Trump, White House aides and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are trying to lobby GOP senators to move for a quick dismissal of the case.
Some critics said they are concerned that the Trump administration is trying to intimidate Bolton. Bolton is a veteran national security official – and frequent author – and they said he would not include top secret information in a book as a matter of course.
“The idea that Bolton would draft a manuscript that contains ‘significant amounts of classified information’ is ridiculous,” tweeted former Justice Department official Michael Bromwich. “He knows what’s classified and what’s not. This is tampering with the pre-publication process to intimidate and achieve political ends.”
Legal analysts said it’s hard to gauge the seriousness of the NSC’s challenge to Bolton’s book and whether it could lead to delay of publication.
Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith said he wouldn’t describe the NSC letter as “a threat.” He tweeted that “it says manuscript contains ‘significant amount’ of classified info, correctly says Bolton cannot publish classified info, and pledges to work w/ him to identify it.”
Goldsmith said he doesn’t think the White House has little “legal leverage” and “cannot get prior restraint” against Bolton’s book. In another tweet, he asked, “Will Bolton comply with requested cuts before publishing, or assume the risk, publish, and litigate later?”
Mark Zaid, an attorney who specializes in national security issues, said that if he was advising Bolton, “I would recommend filing a lawsuit now and seek expedited processing of his case given First Amendment interests.”
Zaid, who often handles lawsuits involving pre-publication review challenges, represents the whisteblower involved in the House impeachment investigation.
Bradley Moss, another national security lawyer, described the NSC letter to Bolton as “standard correspondence” on a book that deals with national security.
“It’s just an interim letter advising Bolton that they already found some allegedly classified information,” he said, “and reminding him he has an obligation to wait for final approval before publishing.”
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/01/29/donald-trump-security-officials-threaten-block-john-boltons-book/4609730002/
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