Former National Security Adviser John Bolton and President Trump, at a White House meeting in 2019. / PHOTO: ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES
U.S. Files Breach-of-Contract Suit Against Ex-National Security Adviser John Bolton
Suit claims Bolton will compromise national security by publishing book it says contains classified information
The U.S. on Tuesday filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against former national security adviser John Bolton, seeking to delay the publication of his book, which the suit alleges contains classified information that could compromise national security.
The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, accused Mr. Bolton of breaching the contract he signed as a condition of his employment and to access classified information. The suit marked the latest effort by the Trump administration to block the publication of the book—scheduled for June 23—which is expected to be harshly critical of President Trump.
Mr. Bolton’s lawyer and spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Bolton’s lawyer and spokeswoman didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Bolton’s lawyer, Charles Cooper, has said a National Security Council official informed him in April the review of the manuscript was complete, but never sent a letter formally clearing the book. Mr. Cooper has accused the White House of seeking to block the book’s publication for political reasons.
Mark Zaid, an attorney who specializes in national security law, said the lawsuit was unlikely to succeed in blocking the publication of the book, which has already been printed, bound and shipped—but that it could cost Mr. Bolton millions by forcing him to forfeit his advance and royalties from the book. “Absent something extraordinary happening, I don’t see why this would delay publication of the book,” he said.
But he said Mr. Bolton “is probably going to have to take his checkbook out and write a very sizable check to the U.S. government.”
According to the lawsuit, while one reviewer at the NSC had judged the manuscript to be free of classified information in April, a more senior official then determined that the current form of the manuscript contained some passages, some several paragraphs long, that contain classified national security information at the confidential, secret and top secret levels. The senior official, Michael Ellis, the NSC’s senior director for intelligence, had “a broader base of knowledge to identify and determine information that is classified,” the lawsuit said.
“Simply put, Defendant struck a bargain with the United States as a condition of his employment in one of the most sensitive and important national security positions in the United States Government and now wants to renege on that bargain by unilaterally deciding that the prepublication review process is complete and deciding for himself whether classified information should be made public,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit asked the court to require Mr. Bolton to finish the prepublication review process or to create a “constructive trust” for any profits from the book if Mr. Bolton proceeded with the scheduled publication date of June 23. “The United States is not seeking to censor any legitimate aspect of Defendant’s manuscript,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also accuses Mr. Bolton of violating his non-disclosure agreements by circulating drafts of his book to some of his associates, citing news reports from January.
According to the lawsuit, Mr. Bolton last asked NSC for a status update on the prepublication review on May 7. The lawsuit says John Eisenberg, the NSC legal adviser, told Mr. Bolton’s attorney on June 8 that the NSC would provide further redactions to the manuscript by June 19.
On Monday, Mr. Trump accused Mr. Bolton of including classified information in the manuscript, adding that he considers any conversation he has with another official “highly classified.”
Presidents have claimed the authority to classify national security information and direct subordinates to do the same, but no president has claimed the total authority to prevent former employees from speaking about non-national security matters—and typically the First Amendment would protect such speech, experts say.
Mr. Trump for months has criticized his former national security adviser for penning a book about his tenure at the White House, complaining that he “gave him a break” by giving him the job, which doesn’t require Senate confirmation. Administration officials were taken aback by how quickly Mr. Bolton had written a book, and some commented he must have been writing it while he was still in the White House, one official said. Mr. Bolton’s spokeswoman declined to comment.
Mr. Trump dismissed Mr. Bolton in September after a series of disputes over foreign policy. Mr. Bolton, the president’s third national security adviser, had served in the job for 18 months.
In a Wall Street Journal opinion column last week, Mr. Cooper detailed his client’s interactions with the White House over the manuscript. Mr. Cooper said that after sending the manuscript to the National Security Council on Dec. 30, Mr. Bolton and an NSC official went over the 500-page manuscript four times, “often line by line.”
On April 27, according to Mr. Cooper, the NSC advised Mr. Bolton its edits were complete, but didn’t send a letter saying the book had been cleared.
On June 8, Mr. Eisenberg, deputy counsel for national security, said in a letter that Mr. Bolton’s manuscript contained classified information and that publishing it would violate his nondisclosure agreements.
“This is a transparent attempt to use national security as a pretext to censor Mr. Bolton, in violation of his constitutional rights to speak on matters of the utmost public import,” Mr. Cooper wrote. “This attempt will not succeed.” Mr. Cooper said the book would be published on June 23.
According to the book’s publisher, “The Room Where It Happens” will be a harshly critical account of the administration during Mr. Bolton’s tenure serving the president. He will paint the White House as chaotic and the president as inconsistent and interested largely in securing his own re-election.
Among the allegations expected to be included in the book is one that goes to the center of the House impeachment charges against the president: that Mr. Trump told Mr. Bolton in August that he wanted to keep aid to Ukraine frozen until the country aided investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Mr. Trump has denied the allegation. He was impeached by the Democratic-led House in December on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress stemming from his dealings with Ukraine. In February, the Republican-led Senate voted to acquit him.
Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at [email protected] and Aruna Viswanatha at [email protected]
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