A lawyer for John Bolton is pushing back on the White House’s assertion that his upcoming book contains classified information and therefore should not be published.
Charles Cooper, Bolton’s attorney, released an email Wednesday afternoon dated Jan. 24 that he sent to the White House on the topic of the forthcoming book, titled “The Room Where It Happened,” under review by National Security Council officials — which he says has still not been answered.
Cooper made the exchange public after the White House wrote to him stating that the manuscript had been reviewed by the NSC and appeared “to contain significant amounts of classified information.”
An NSC official then warned against publishing the book, he said.
In his response, Bolton’s lawyer asked for an expeditious resolution to the dispute, as Trump’s former national security adviser was preparing for the possibility of testifying in the Senate impeachment trial.
“The House Managers in the Senate impeachment trial have made clear their intention to seek Ambassador Bolton’s testimony at trial, and although no one yet knows whether the Senate will subpoena him to testify, he is preparing for that possibility. If he is called to testify, it seems certain that he will be asked questions that will elicit much of the information contained in the chapter of his manuscript dealing with his involvement in matters relating to Ukraine,” Cooper wrote.
“We do not believe that any of that information could reasonably be considered classified, but given that Ambassador Bolton could be called to testify as early as next week, it is imperative that we have the results of your review of that chapter as soon as possible,” Cooper wrote.
Earlier this week, details of portions of Bolton’s book were leaked to the New York Times, specifically including claims that Trump told Bolton during an August 2019 meeting that the withholding of military aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats.
Following the leak of the under-review manuscript, Trump took to Twitter to deny the claims.
Trump is undergoing an impeachment trial in the Senate over his alleged withholding of the critical military aid and a White House meeting for Ukraine in exchange for the announcement of an investigation into Joe Biden, his chief political rival in the 2020 election.
Bolton has been viewed as a key witness for the Democrats’ case against the president. Earlier this month, the former national security adviser said he would testify if subpoenaed by the Senate.