President Donald Trump says it is “inappropriate” and potentially illegal for former National Security Advisor John Bolton to write a book about his time in the Trump administration.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump claimed the book contained classified information and said it is “highly inappropriate” to write his book.
“Maybe he’s not telling the truth, he’s been known not to tell the truth, a lot,” he added.
Trump also asked Attorney General William Barr to weigh in on Bolton’s book. Barr said Bolton had not completed the clearing process for books written by former officials and called it “unprecedented” that Bolton would publish his book while Trump is in office.
Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened,” is scheduled to be released on June, 23, following months of delays due to a White House review process.
On Monday, ABC News reported that the Trump administration would file a lawsuit to block the publication of Bolton’s book.
A description of Bolton’s book says it will detail “Trump’s Ukraine-like transgressions” that “existed across the full range of his foreign policy.”
“This is the book Donald Trump doesn’t want you to read,” the publisher of the book said, adding, “What Bolton saw astonished him: a president for whom getting re-elected was the only thing that mattered, even if it meant endangering or weakening the nation.”
“I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by re-election calculations,” Bolton reportedly wrote in the book.
Bolton’s lawyer, Charles Cooper, said on June, 8 that the White House told him the book “contains classified information and that publishing the book would violate his nondisclosure agreements.”
Cooper said that was a “transparent attempt to use national security as a pretext to censor Mr. Bolton.”
He added, “This attempt will not succeed, and Mr Bolton’s book will be published June 23.”