Lawyer: US drops lawsuit, grand jury probe over Bolton book
Source: Associated Press
By ERIC TUCKER
2 hours ago
The Justice Department has abandoned its lawsuit against John Bolton, former President Donald Trumps onetime national security adviser, over his book that officials argued disclosed classified information, according to court documents and Boltons representatives. Prosecutors also have dropped a grand jury investigation over the books publication, Boltons lawyer said Wednesday.
The Trump administration sued last year to block the release of Boltons book, The Room Where It Happened, and to recover copies of the book that had already been distributed. The book, released in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, offered a behind-the-scenes, and unflattering, account of Trumps foreign policy dealings. It described how Trump asked Chinas President Xi Jinping to help the Americans reelection prospects and how Trump had pressured his Ukraine counterpart for politically charged investigations.
Justice Department lawyers who sued over the book had insisted that the manuscript contained classified information that could damage national security and that Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, had failed to complete a prepublication review process designed to prevent the disclosure of government secrets.
On Wednesday, the Biden administration filed a document in federal court dismissing the suit, formally bringing the yearlong court fight to an end.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-joe-biden-lawsuits-entertainment-government-and-politics-0bc0171d2dc3392623ab18278a1a94ef
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)Justice Department Drops Criminal Inquiry and Lawsuit into John Boltons Memoir That Embarrassed Trump
ADAM KLASFELD
Jun 16th, 2021, 6:09 pm
Dropping both a criminal inquiry and a civil lawsuit, the Justice Department has closed the book on whether former President Donald Trumps ex-National Security Advisor John Boltons memoir illegally disclosed classified information, his aide confirmed on Wednesday.
After resisting testifying during Trumps first impeachment, Bolton said he would give the tell-all he refused to provide Congress in a book titled, The Room Where It Happened, depicting the 45th president as a man regularly seeking to do favors for dictators he liked. Trumps Justice Department swung back hard, opening a criminal probe and filing a civil lawsuit seeking to recoup all of the books proceeds.
The government confirmed the lawsuits dismissal in a single-sentence stipulation entered into the courts docket on Wednesday.
Boltons aide Sarah Tinsley confirmed that the developments, first reported by the New York Times, in a lengthy statement touting what she characterized as his complete vindication.
More:
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/justice-department-drops-criminal-inquiry-and-lawsuit-into-john-boltons-memoir-that-embarrassed-trump/
bucolic_frolic
(43,189 posts)Like American citizens are the last to know