A federal judge has denied a Trump administration request to block former national security adviser John Bolton
John BoltonJournalist Aaron Maté says Democrats are responsible for giving John Bolton publicity Federal judge appears skeptical of blocking Bolton book release McEnany: Trump likes to hire people with 'countervailing viewpoints' MORE's book from being published.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth wrote in an order released Saturday that "while Bolton's unilateral conduct raises grave national security concerns, the government has not established that an injunction is an appropriate remedy."
The judge noted that the Justice Department's push for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction comes after the book has been printed and shipped across the country ahead of its scheduled release on Tuesday.
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Lamberth, who was appointed to the federal district court in D.C. by former President Reagan, seemed to suggest that he would have granted the injunction had Bolton and his publisher, Simon & Schuster, not already begun distributing the book.
The judge questioned Bolton's actions in pushing ahead with the book's publication without receiving written official notice concluding that his manuscript was clear of sensitive or classified information.
But the judge also said that it was too late to issue a restraining order that would temporarily halt the release, given that advance copies are already in the hands of journalists and its contents have been widely reported.
"In taking it upon himself to publish his book without securing final approval from national intelligence authorities, Bolton may indeed have caused the country irreparable harm," Lamberth wrote. "But in the Internet age, even a handful of copies in circulation could irrevocably destroy confidentiality. A single dedicated individual with a book in hand could publish its contents far and wide from his local coffee shop. With hundreds of thousands of copies around the globe—many in newsrooms—the damage is done. There is no restoring the status quo."
The Justice Department had filed its lawsuit Tuesday against Bolton seeking to prevent his highly anticipated memoir from becoming public.
Bolton, who served as Trump's third national security adviser between April 2018 to September 2019, offers one of the most detailed accounts to date of the Trump White House in the book, titled "The Room Where It Happened."
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The hawkish former top security aide describes an atmosphere where aides are pitted against each other and top administration officials bad-mouth the president in private.
It also includes a number of allegations surrounding Trump's foreign policy, including claiming he sought the help of China's president for his reelection.
The administration has asserted that the 500-plus-page book includes classified information, something Bolton's lawyer has rejected.
President Trump
Donald John TrumpProtesters tear down, burn statue of Confederate general in DC US attorney in NYC who spearheaded probes of Trump allies refuses to leave as DOJ pushes ouster Trump to host 4th of July event despite pleas from lawmakers to cancel MORE broadly pushed back on Bolton during an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity
Sean Patrick HannityTulsa becomes battleground in latest Trump controversy The Hill's 12:30 Report: Nation reacts to landmark DACA decision The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - Bolton book rocks Washington MORE earlier this week, calling the former aide "a washed-up guy" and claiming "he broke the law."
Trump also broadly defended his administration's policies, asserting that "nobody has been tougher on Russia or China than I have.”
The decision on Saturday could prove to be a pyrrhic victory for Bolton.
Lamberth said in his decision that the Trump administration's lawsuit is likely to succeed, which is usually a major factor that judges consider in deciding whether to grant a preliminary injunction. But in this case, Lamberth said, such an injunction would not remedy any potential damage caused by Bolton's book.
Bolton now faces the risk of losing out on royalties from the tell-all if the Trump administration wins in court. There's also the possibility that Trump's former national security adviser is vulnerable to criminal charges for disclosing classified information.
The Department of Justice is accusing Bolton of violating the nondisclosure agreements he signed when he joined the White House that required him to submit any books he planned to write for a prepublication review.
While an official had told Bolton in April following a months-long editing process that she believed the manuscript no longer contained any classified material, the National Security Council never sent a letter confirming that the review had been completed and Bolton later found out that a more senior official was conducting a new review.
The more senior official, White House senior director of intelligence Michael Ellis, said that he had discovered several passages containing classified information, which the Trump administration contends will harm U.S. national security.
Bolton decided to proceed with the book's release before he received official approval from the NSC.
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"This was Bolton’s bet: If he is right and the book does not contain classified information, he keeps the upside mentioned above; but if he is wrong, he stands to lose his profits from the book deal, exposes himself to criminal liability, and imperils national security," Lamberth wrote on Saturday. "Bolton was wrong."
– John Kruzel contributed.
Updated: 11:38 a.m.
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