John Bolton’s new tell-all memoir, The Room Where It Happened, Trump’s former national security advisor details pieces of the truth behind the lies of the Trump administration, blatant obstruction of justice, and asking other foreign countries than Ukraine, for which Trump was impeached, to help him in the upcoming 2020 election. Trump has not stopped tweeting about it since the excerpts from the book were released. He’s claimed that Bolton broke the law by releasing classified information, but also says Bolton’s entire book is a lie. He can’t have it both ways.
Trump’s tweets are a case where he’s actually right, for the most part, but is leaving out details that change the meaning of the statement. The federal judge in charge of ruling in the case brought by the government against Bolton to halt publication of his book, or at least restrict him from earning money on the book, ruled that Bolton jumped the gun on beginning his release. Bolton says he was told by the NSC that all classified information had been removed in the editing process, but a written agreement to go ahead with the book was never issued.
Further, the judge did rule that it was unnecessary to release materials that have already been leaked, copies published and sent out, so Trump has that part right, as well. It’s not the full story.
In the court decision issued by Judge Royce Lamberth, however, he determined that the jump to publish the book prior to written authorization was wrong but that “a single factor is not sufficient for an injunction to issue.” In other words, it isn’t enough to take Bolton to court on criminal charges.
Even more importantly, the judge also ruled that the government showed no real evidence that the release of the book compromises national security or could cause any irreparable harm to the U.S. government. Lamberth agreed that it could harm the government, but that the case made by Trump government officials was insufficient. They had not proven anything.
Twitter had much to say about Trump’s endless stream of thin-skinned tweets about Bolton’s book. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
