Donald Trump Will Get His Day In Court To Try To Stop John Bolton’s Memoir

Ted Johnson
·3 min read

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A federal judge scheduled a hearing for early Friday afternoon on the Justice Department’s effort to obtain an emergency order to halt the release of John Bolton’s memoir, even though a number of journalists already have obtained the book and reported on some of its explosive claims about Donald Trump’s White House.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth set a videoconference for 1 PM ET, after the DOJ filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, claiming that the memoir includes confidential information that Bolton failed to complete a required national security review process for his book. The DOJ believes that such an order against Bolton ultimately would require that publisher Simon & Schuster delay plans for the memoir’s release on Tuesday.

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But Bolton has been forging ahead with a planned publicity blitz next week. He’s doing a one-hour ABC News special on Sunday evening, followed by guest spots in the next few days after that. Fox News’ Bret Baier will interview him for Special Report on Tuesday, and then he will be on Late Show with Stephen Colbert that evening. On Thursday, he’s booked for MSNBC’s Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace.

According to reports on The Room Where It Happened, Bolton includes a number of bombshell claims about Trump, including that the president sought the assistance of Chinese President Xi Jiaping in winning reelection this year.

Vanity Fair reported on an unredacted passage from the book, with Bolton writing that at a G20 meeting last summer, Trump told Xi, “Make sure I win.”

Trump slammed Bolton on Twitter on Thursday, writing, “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!”

Trump also claimed that Bolton gave bad advice when it came to North Korea, writing, “When Wacko John Bolton went on Deface the Nation and so stupidly said that he looked at the ‘Libyan Model’ for North Korea, all hell broke out. Kim Jong Un, who we were getting along with very well, went “ballistic”, just like his missiles – and rightfully so….He didn’t want Bolton anywhere near him. Bolton’s dumbest of all statements set us back very badly with North Korea, even now. I asked him, ‘what the hell were you thinking?’ He had no answer and just apologized. That was early on, I should have fired him right then & there!”

Meanwhile, Lin-Manuel Miranda skewered Bolton for not testifying before the House and instead leaving his revelatory claims for his book. He also took issue with the title.

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