Freedom of expression against national security, 2nd round. The U.S. government launched legal action on Tuesday to try to block the publication of a book by ex-White House adviser John Bolton, which is expected to paint a very critical portrait of Donald Trump's presidency.
The complaint, filed with a federal court, argues that John Bolton did not have his manuscript approved beforehand, and that his work is thus "clearly in violation of the agreements he signed as a condition of his employment and its access to highly classified information ”.
The book, The Room Where It Happened, A White House Memoir , is scheduled to be released on June 23. Last January, John Bolton said he was ready to testify during the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, ensuring that the American president had conditioned Ukraine's military aid on the announcement of the opening of an investigation into Joe Biden. But in a close vote, the Republican senators refused to summon him.
Each decision made "for re-election"
Its editor Simon & Schuster assured that the ex-adviser had cooperated with the presidency to amend his initial manuscript taking into account his "concerns". He nevertheless invoked "the right of Ambassador Bolton to tell the story of his passage to Trump's White House, in accordance with the First Amendment" of the American Constitution, which enshrines freedom of expression.
John Bolton has already recorded a television interview which is to be broadcast on Sunday by the ABC channel. According to a press release from the editor, the one who held this strategic position in the White House from April 2018 to September 2019 describes in his book a Donald Trump who made all his decisions "guided by a calculation with a view to his re-election" .
"What Bolton saw astounded him: a president to be re-elected is the only thing that matters, even if it means endangering or weakening the nation," added the editor. According to this account, the real estate tycoon would thus have taken decisions liable to dismissal well beyond the only Ukrainian affair which brought him an indictment, but led to his acquittal by the Senate.
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