Daily US Times: The US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit to prevent John Bolton – the former National Security Adviser from publishing a new book about his time at the White House.
The book contains “classified information”, according to the complaint.
The move comes a day after President Donald Trump said Mr Bolton could face “criminal problems” if the publishes the book.
Mr Trump told reporters on Monday: “I will consider every conversation with me as president highly classified. So that would mean that if he wrote a book and if the book gets out, he’s broken the law and I would think he would have criminal problems.”
But the American Civil Liberties Union, a non-profit organization, said that “any Trump administration efforts to stop John Bolton’s book from being published are doomed to fail”.
Charles Cooper, Mr Bolton’s lawyer, said they were looking through the lawsuit and “will respond in due course”.
The White House said in January that the book contained “top secret” details that must be removed, although John Bolton rejected the claim.
However, claims reportedly contained in the manuscript – including that Mr Trump withheld military aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to start a corruption investigation into Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his son Hunter – formed a central part of the president’s impeachment trial earlier this year.
Mr Bolton joined the White House in April 2018 and left in September the following year.
His leaving from White House created confusion as he said that he had decided to quit as national security adviser but President Trump said he had fired Mr Bolton because he disagreed “strongly” with him.
Trump administration has escalated effort to halt the publication of the book titled “The Room Where it Happened,” as the sue claimed Mr Botlon breached the contract in an unorthodox legal move, opening what could be an extended legal battle.
Trump has claimed falsely that all of his conversations with the former national security adviser are classified.
The White House has speculation that there will be highly damaging information about Trump in the book, which could further harm his image ahead of the election.
The book is scheduled to release next week and has already shipped to warehouses ahead. The Former Trump adviser has taped an interview with ABC scheduled to air Sunday.
In a statement published on Tuesday, Bolton’s publisher Simon & Schuster said that the lawsuit “is nothing more than the latest in a long running series of efforts by the Administration to quash publication of a book it deems unflattering to the President.”
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