A US judge has rejected a request by the Trump administration to stop the publication of a memoir by former National Security Adviser John Bolton.
The justice department argued that the book had not been properly vetted.
Judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court in Washington DC said Mr Bolton had “gambled” with US national security and “exposed his country to harm”.
But he ruled that the government had “failed to establish that an injunction would prevent irreparable harm”.
The new work – The Room Where It Happened – is due to go on sale on 23 June. In it, Mr Bolton paints a picture of a president whose decision-making was dominated by a desire to win the presidency again.
Many of the allegations are based on private conversations and are impossible to verify. The Trump administration has pushed back against Mr Bolton, with the president saying the book was “made up of lies and fake stories”.
Among the book’s allegations are that:
- President Trump sought help from Chinese President Xi Jinping to win the 2020 vote, stressing the “importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome”
- He also said China’s construction of internment camps in the Xinjiang region was the “right thing to do”
- President Trump was willing to intervene in criminal investigations “to, in effect, give personal favours to dictators he liked”. Mr Bolton said Mr Trump was willing to assist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over a case involving a Turkish company
- The US leader said invading Venezuela would be “cool” and that the South American nation was “really part of the United States”
- President Trump was unaware the UK was a nuclear power and once asked a senior aide if Finland was part of Russia
(BBC)
