FACTS
The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against former national security adviser John Bolton in an attempt to halt the release of his memoir which Trump says contains classified information. The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir is Bolton’s soon-to-be-released book containing accounts of what he alleges to be Trump’s poor handling of national security issues, including those with Russia and China.
LEFT & RIGHT
Both sides agree that Trump’s attempted lawsuit will not hold up and is not justified.
LEFT
“The chief government reviewer of the book concluded, after exhaustive analysis and editing, that the book contains no classified information,” wrote Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., a partner with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, adding that even if it did, prior restraint would still not be justified or acceptable. CNN legal analyst Elie Honig criticized Bolton, saying “now that he has entered book promo mode, [he] suddenly has summoned the spine that he was sorely missing back when it would have made an actual difference.” He condemns Bolton for failing to testify during Trump’s impeachment.
“All these new details reinforce the broader pattern in which Trump sees government as nothing more than a tool to advance his own interests…”
Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman, Washington Post
RIGHT
Retired attorney Paul Mirengoff who writes for the conservative Power Line blog asks the question of why Trump appointed Bolton who obviously opposed Trump’s agenda in the first place, but adds that the “publication of a truthful account serves the public interest.” He wonders “whether the bad taste [Bolton’s] experience at the White House left in his mouth has undercut the objectivity of his account.” Washington Examiner reporter Kaylee McGhee remarks that if true, the memoir would be damning for the president, but writes that “other members of the administration have denied the accusations as well and slammed them as a lie.” A popular conservative but anti-Trump blog read:
“Maybe all sides can settle on the proposition that what his administration does publicly is more important than what Trump says privately.”
Allahpundit, Hot Air
I’ve not read the book, but from the excerpts I’ve seen published, John Bolton is spreading a number of lies, fully-spun half-truths, and outright falsehoods.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) June 19, 2020
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