Former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s White House tell-all won’t be published in May.
The publication of The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir has been delayed a second time, according to Politico. Bolton’s book was originally set for release March 17, then was pushed back to May 12. The new publication date is June 23.
The book is undergoing an extensive review by the National Security Council after the White House said it contains top-secret information that cannot be published. Bolton’s lawyer has denied that assertion.
Bolton and President Trump have publicly quarreled over the book’s contents, some of which were leaked earlier this year, including details about Trump’s phone call with Ukraine that became the basis for his impeachment. Bolton wrote that Trump withheld security aid to Ukraine to pressure the country into investigating his political rival Joe Biden.
There was growing pressure to call Bolton as a witness during Trump’s impeachment trial, but Republicans declined. Trump claimed Bolton’s testimony would threaten national security.
“He knows some of my thoughts. He knows what I think about leaders, what happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader, and it’s not very positive, and then I have to deal on behalf of the country? It’s going to be very hard, it’s going to make the job very hard. He knows other things. And I don’t know if we left on the best of terms,” Trump said at a news conference in Davos, Switzerland, in January.
Bolton left the White House in September after clashing with Trump on major foreign policy issues.
