As Washington was rocked Sunday night as details emerged of former NSC adviser John Bolton’s soon-to-be published book, his lawyer was out placing blame on the Trump administration for the leaked copy.
The New York Times did not reveal how it obtained a draft copy of the book.
The book, however, was harshly critical of the President, and tied Trump’s decision on Ukrainian military aid with a clear quid-pro-quo of the aid in exchange for investigations of the 2016 election and the Bidens.
On Sunday Bolton’s lawyer, Charles Cooper, issued a letter and statement to media and Bolton allies, claiming that after submitting the book for national security vetting, the draft had leaked.
Cooper said the vetting process had been “corrupted” – implying someone in the Trump administration leaked the book.
Cooper’s verbatim letter follows:
On December 30, 2019, I submitted, on behalf of Ambassador Bolton, a book manuscript to the National Security Council’s Records Management Division for standard prepublication security review for classified information. As explained in my cover letter to Ellen J. Knight, Senior Director of the Records Management Division, we submitted the manuscript notwithstanding our firm belief that the manuscript contained no information that could reasonably be considered classified and on the assurance that the "process of reviewing submitted materials is restricted to those career government officials and employees regularly charged with responsibility for such reviews" and that the “contents of Ambassador Bolton’s manuscript will not be reviewed or otherwise disclosed to any persons not regularly involved in that process." A copy of my December 30 letter is attached. It is clear, regrettably, from The New York Times article published today that the prepublication review process has been corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript.
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