The Trump administration escalated its fight against John Bolton as revelations from his forthcoming memoir, printed in a series of newspapers, rocked the political world.
The Department of Justice asked a judge on Wednesday to issue an order halting publication of the book, titled The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, claiming its publication, which is scheduled for next Tuesday, “will damage the national security of the United States,” the Washington Post reports.
The administration’s move comes one day after the Department of Justice sued Bolton, who served as national security adviser in 2018-19, in an attempt to force him to delay the book’s publication date. Federal prosecutors are also considering pressing criminal charges against Bolton, according to the Los Angeles Times.
An excerpt from the book was printed in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, and the New York Times and the Washington Post both ran articles containing some of the book’s more explosive claims, including allegations that President Trump sought the help of China to win election to the presidency, and that Trump encouraged Xi Jingping, the president of China, to keep building “re-education” camps for Uighur Muslims in the country’s Xinjiang region.
On Thursday morning, Trump slammed Bolton on Twitter, calling his book “a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad,” and called Bolton “a sick puppy” and a “Wacko.”
Bolton’s book, which is getting terrible reviews, is a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad. Many of the ridiculous statements he attributes to me were never made, pure fiction. Just trying to get even for firing him like the sick puppy he is!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020
The news stories surrounding the book seem to have caught the interest of American readers. As of Thursday morning, Bolton’s memoir was the No. 1 bestselling book on Amazon.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
