Judge rejects ban on tellall book

A judge rejected a last-minute attempt by the Trump administration to block the publication of John Bolton’s book about his time as the president’s national security adviser.

Judge Royce Lamberth, of the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia, wrote in a 10-page decision yesterday that arguments made by the US Justice Department were not enough to stop the book’s release on Tuesday.

The judge wrote: “The government has failed to establish that an injunction will prevent irreparable harm.”

However, he added that Mr Bolton had “gambled with the national security of the United States.”

The decision represented a victory for Mr Bolton in a court case that involved the First Amendment right to free speech, and national security concerns.

The Justice Department had sued to block the book’s release, and to demand copies be retrieved.

But the judge said copies had already been widely distributed to booksellers and “there is no restoring the status quo.”

Among administration officials who have condemned the book was Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, who called Mr Bolton a “traitor”.

Mr Trump, on Twitter, declared the judge’s decision a “BIG COURT WIN against Bolton” with “strong & powerful statements”.

He said Mr Bolton “must pay a very big price for this” and “will have bombs dropped on him!”

Nick Allen

Copyright © 2020 by John R Bolton. Extracted from the forthcoming book ‘The Room Where It Happened’ by John Bolton, to be published by Simon & Schuster, Inc.