[ad_1]
The Justice Department has dropped its civil lawsuit against former National Security Adviser John Bolton over the publication of his 2020 book, “The Room Where It Happened,” according to a court filing obtained by Fox News on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors also dropped the criminal investigation, according to Bolton’s representatives. Former President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice sued Bolton over the book in June 2020, alleging that the publication contained classified information and that Bolton had failed to complete a pre-publication review.
“We are very pleased that the Department of Justice has dismissed the civil case against Ambassador Bolton and terminated the grand jury proceedings,” Bolton’s chief attorney Charles Cooper said in a statement. “We have argued from the outset that neither measure was justified, because they were only initiated as a result of President Trump’s politically motivated order to block publication of the Ambassador’s book prior to the 2020 election.”
Bolton served as Trump’s national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019. The book contained a damning account of Trump’s White House, alleging that the former president “appealed” to Chinese President Xi Jinping for help with his campaign, among other errors.
The Trump administration has tried to stop publication of the book. A federal judge allowed the book to be released, but noted that Bolton had “likely published classified material.”
Cooper noted that Bolton’s book was published after Ellen Knight, the Senior Professional Officer at the National Security Council responsible for the pre-publication review process at the National Security Council, personally conducted a painstaking four-month publication review of Ambassador Bolton’s book, and after requesting a number of revisions, I concluded that it did not contain classified information.”
CLICK HERE FOR FOX NEWS APP
“These actions represent a complete vindication of Ambassador Bolton, and a refusal of former President Trump’s attempt, on the pretext of protecting classified information, to first suppress publication of the book and when that failed in court, to sanction the ambassador,” Bolton’s spokeswoman Sarah said. Tinsley said in a statement.
The Associated Press and Bill Mears of Fox News contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Picture Credit!