Bolton book could land him in prison, warns Jonathan Turley

Then-National Security Adviser John Bolton in an interview Aug. 27, 2019, with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (video screenshot)

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton not only could lose the profits from his new book, he could end up in prison if he goes ahead and publishes it, contends constitutional scholar and legal analyst Jonathan Turley.

A noted libertarian Democrat, Turley acknowledged in a column on his website Tuesday that there is a political motivation for President Trump and Attorney General William Barr to block the new tell-all, "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir."

But Barr said Monday that Bolton has not completed the required pre-publication security review, and the book contains classified information, argued Turley, a professor at the George Washington University School of Law.

Bolton, in his non-disclosure agreement when he left his position with the Trump administration, agreed that any book he might write must go through the review.

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It's one thing for the book to contain "privileged" information that might harm national security, Turley wrote, but classified information is a "game changer."

"Courts defer greatly to the Executive Branch on such classifications," he explained. "Moreover, as Barr noted, discussions of a president with the heads of foreign nations are ordinarily classified."

A preview of the book released last week by publisher Simon & Schuster said Bolton "argues that the House committed impeachment malpractice by keeping their prosecution focused narrowly on Ukraine when Trump’s Ukraine-like transgressions existed across the full range of his foreign policy." Bolton's main charge appears to be that nearly every "significant Trump decision" during his tenure was "driven by re-election calculations."

However, as WND reported, the Senate in January didn't think the president's "transgressions" in Ukraine were impeachable. And Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz specifically rebutted the Democrats' claim that the president should be impeached because he would benefit politically if Ukraine announced an investigation of alleged corruption by a potential rival in the 2020 election, Joe Biden.

Turley was invited by House Republicans to testify in the impeachment investigation Dec. 4. Arguing against the testimony of three Democratic witnesses, he contended House Democrats had lowered the standards for impeachment to "fit a paucity of evidence and an abundance of anger."

'A clear menacing element'

Simon & Schuster said in its release last week that Bolton in recent months had "worked in cooperation with the National Security Council to incorporate changes to the text that addressed NSC concerns."

"The final, published version of this book reflects those changes, and Simon & Schuster is fully supportive of Ambassador Bolton's First Amendment right to tell the story of his time in the Trump White House."

However, Barr told reporters Monday the Justice Department believes the process has not been completed and Bolton has failed to "make the necessary deletions of classified information."

Turley wrote in his column Tuesday that Bolton could face a court injunction to prevent publication of the book that also could strip him of any profits and land him in prison.

Turley recalled the case of former Navy Seal Matt Bissonnette, who was denied royalties in a court order for failure to obtain approval for his book.

There is less of a chance of criminal liability, Turley said, but it's possible if Bolton was warned that he was about to release classified information and did it anyway.

Turley noted that Barr is known as particularly protective of privileged and classified information.

"Bolton did not complete the process and, according to the statements yesterday, he did not comply with the removal of the material," he wrote.

Turley said there is "a clear menacing element to Barr’s words that the process has not been completed."

"Bolton may have been given just enough rope to hang himself if he unilaterally cuts off the process," he wrote.