BFF-51 US judge allows release of ex-Trump aide Bolton’s book

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BFF-51

US-POLITICS-TRUMP-BOOK

US judge allows release of ex-Trump aide Bolton’s book

WASHINGTON, June 20, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – A US judge refused Saturday to
block the release of a tell-all book in which President Donald Trump’s
former national security advisor describes him as corrupt and
incompetent.

With the book already shipped to stores for sale next week, Judge
Royce Lambert wrote that John Bolton appeared to have failed to get
written White House agreement that his memoir contained nothing
classified.

“While Bolton’s unilateral conduct raises grave national security
concerns, the government has not established that an injunction is an
appropriate remedy,” the judge wrote.

The judge said a review of passages that the government contends
contain classified material has persuaded him that Bolton “likely
jeopardized national security through publication.”

The book, entitled “The Room Where it Happened,” has been widely
shipped to bookstores for publication Tuesday and many of its most
damning allegations against Trump have been reported in the media.

It is Bolton’s portrait of 17 months up close with Trump, until he
was ousted in September.

The picture — which Trump characterizes as “fiction” — is ugly.

According to Bolton, a lifelong Republican who stands firmly on the
right of the party, Trump is not “fit for office.”

He describes Trump “pleading” with Chinese President Xi Jinping
during trade negotiations to boost his chances of re-election this
November by buying more US farm products to help Trump win votes in
agricultural states.

BSS/AFP/MRU/2144hrs