A lawyer for John Bolton slammed the leak of details from the former national security adviser’s upcoming book that have quickly rocked the impeachment case against President Trump.
Drafts of Bolton’s manuscript were shared with associates and the White House for a review process, and the New York Times reported on Sunday that Bolton wrote that he was told by Trump in August that a hold on nearly $400 million in congressionally approved military aid was tied to his efforts to pressure Kyiv into assisting with investigations into his political rivals, including former Vice President and presidential candidate Joe Biden. Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper repeatedly pushed Trump to unlock the funds, which were released in September.
“It is clear, regrettably, from The New York Times article published today that the prepublication review process has been corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript,” Charles Cooper, a lawyer to Bolton, said in a statement.
The New York Times report, which was sourced by “multiple people” who described Bolton’s book but cited no direct quotes from his drafts, prompted a swift reaction from Democrats.
House impeachment managers issued a statement that said Bolton has “vital information” that undercuts the Trump defense team’s claim that the freeze of security assistance to Ukraine was separate from the push for an announcement of investigations that would be politically beneficial to the president. Led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, they called on senators to vote in favor of subpoenaing or calling witnesses to testify.
In a salvo of tweets just after midnight on Monday, Trump denied telling Bolton that the security aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations. “If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book,” he said.
Bolton left the White House in September and announced earlier this month that he was willing to testify in the Senate impeachment trial if subpoenaed by lawmakers. Trump signaled that he would block Bolton from testifying, claiming it would be to protect executive privilege for himself and future presidents.
A manuscript of Bolton’s book, which is being published by Simon & Schuster, was submitted to the National Security Council’s Records Management Division for a standard prepublication security review for classified information on Dec. 30, according to Cooper, who provided journalists a copy of the accompanying cover letter.
“As explained in my cover letter to Ellen J. Knight, Senior Director of the Records Management Division, we submitted the manuscript not withstanding our firm believe that the manuscript contained no information that could reasonably be considered classified and on the assurance that the ‘process of reviewing submitted materials is restricted to those career government officials and employees regularly charged with responsibility for such reviews’ and the ‘contents of Ambassador Bolton’s manuscript will not be reviewed or otherwise disclosed to any persons not regularly involved in that process,'” Cooper said.
Sarah Tinsley, an adviser to Bolton, told Axios that the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations sent the draft manuscript only to the White House for a prepublication review by the National Security Council. “The ambassador has not passed the draft manuscript to anyone else. Period,” she said.
Bolton’s book, titled The Room Where it Happened, is tentatively scheduled to be released on March 17.
