Judge Allows Bolton Memoir To Proceed, Despite Trump Administration Objection

The release of former National Security Adviser John Bolton's book, The Room Where It Happened, remains on track after a federal judge on Saturday rejected the Trump administration's request to block its release.

Judge Royce Lamberth of the D.C. District Court said the administration failed to prove that demanding a halt to publication was "an appropriate remedy" for the complications raised by Bolton's book.

Bolton "has gambled with the national security of the United States. He has exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability," Lamberth concluded. "But these facts do not control the motion before the Court. The government has failed to establish that an injunction will prevent irreparable harm."

The Justice Department had sought a temporary restraining order against Bolton and his publisher, Simon and Schuster, citing what it called the presence of classified information in Bolton's manuscript. But the book already has been widely distributed, and it is scheduled to be released Tuesday.

The publisher has called the lawsuit "frivolous, politically motivated exercise in futility": "Hundreds of thousands of copies of the book have already been distributed around the country and the world."

Indeed, a number of the book's most explosive allegations against Trump have already gone public, with the book already widely reviewed — including by NPR. The president and other deputies have denied the claims as just so many "lies and fake stories."

Bolton served as Trump's national security adviser for nearly a year and a half until leaving the administration in 2019.

This story will be updated. [Copyright 2020 NPR]