Bolton plans to publish book in June even if
White House doesn't give approval
Kylie
Atwood
By Kylie
Atwood and Paul LeBlanc, CNN
Updated
0158 GMT (0958 HKT) June 8, 2020
(CNN)Former
Trump national security adviser John Bolton is planning to publish his book
detailing his time in the West Wing later this month, even if the White House
does not give publication approval, a source familiar with the negotiations
told CNN.
"The
Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir" is scheduled to be released
on June 23, and, as of now, the White House has not formally signed off on it,
the source said. Bolton has already scheduled network interviews to promote the
book, a separate source told CNN. A spokesperson for Bolton declined to
comment.
The
Washington Post was the first to report the details of Bolton's plan. CNN has
contacted the book's publisher, Simon & Schuster, for comment.
News of
Bolton's plans to move forward follow numerous delays as his lawyers have been
embroiled in a battle with the White House over the contents. The Trump
administration has raised concerns about the publication of classified
information that it says is protected by executive privilege.
Earlier
this year, The New York Times reported that Bolton, in his unpublished
manuscript, alleged that President Donald Trump directed him to help with his
pressure campaign to get damaging information on Democrats from Ukraine.
According
to the Times, he also alleged that Trump didn't want to lift a hold on military
aid to Ukraine until officials there complied with the request. Bolton's
lawyers have not denied the substance of the New York Times reports but have
condemned the leaks behind it.
The
President, vice president and some agency heads designated by the President,
have broad authority over classifying or declassifying information.
CNN
previously reported that Bolton's team has prepared for the possibility that
the administration may try to retroactively classify some of the material in
his book -- a measure that is uncommon, but not unheard of, due to loopholes in
executive order 13526.
"The
President is really empowered by the words in this executive authority,"
said J. William Leonard, the former director of the information security office
which overseas executive branch implementation of the executive order -- and
former deputy secretary of defense.
"It's
an authority that can be abused and it can weaken the classification
system," Leonard said. "They abuse it to keep the information out of
the hands of adversaries that could potentially use the information to harm the
country."
This story
has been updated with additional details.
CNN's
Kaitlan Collins, Brian Stelter, Vivian Salama contributed to this report.
New York Times: Bolton wrote he was concerned Trump
was granting favors to autocratic leaders
By Paul
LeBlanc, CNN
Updated
1020 GMT (1820 HKT) January 28, 2020
Washington
(CNN)President Donald Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton
claims to have privately told Attorney General William Barr last year that he
was concerned the President was granting favors to the autocratic leaders of
China and Turkey, The New York Times reported Monday, citing multiple people's
descriptions of an unpublished draft manuscript by Bolton.
Barr told
Bolton in response that he worried Trump had created the appearance of undue
influence over two Justice Department investigations of companies in China and
Turkey, which are traditionally independent inquiries, the draft manuscript
says, according to the Times.
To make his
point, Barr made specific reference to Trump's conversations with President Xi
Jinping of China about Chinese telecommunications company ZTE, which agreed to
pay fines in 2017 for violating US sanctions on doing business with Iran, North
Korea and other countries, Bolton wrote, according to the Times. In 2018, the
Trump administration reached a deal with ZTE to lift the ban in exchange for a series
of other punishments, including the company overhauling its top management,
bringing in an American monitoring team and paying a $1 billion fine.
Bolton also
claims, the Times reported, that Barr cited Trump's comments to Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2018 about an investigation into the
state-owned Turkish bank Halkbank -- though ultimately the Justice Department
charged the bank with "fraud, money laundering, and sanctions offenses
related to the bank's participation in a multibillion-dollar scheme to evade US
sanctions on Iran."
A
spokeswoman for the Justice Department said Monday night it had not reviewed
the manuscript, but the Times' "account of this conversation grossly
mischaracterizes what Attorney General Barr and Mr. Bolton discussed. There was
no discussion of 'personal favors' or 'undue influence' on investigations, nor
did Attorney General Barr state that the President's conversations with foreign
leaders was improper."
"If
this is truly what Mr. Bolton has written, then it seems he is attributing to
Attorney General Barr his own current views -- views with which Attorney
General Barr does not agree," Kerri Kupec, the spokeswoman, said.
The newly
purported revelations in Bolton's unpublished draft manuscript come the day
after a New York Times report citing the same manuscript detailed how,
according to Bolton, Trump said he wanted to continue holding military aid to
Ukraine until the country helped with investigations into Democrats --
including former Vice President Joe Biden.
A source
with direct knowledge of the manuscript told CNN that The New York Times'
telling of Bolton's account of the discussion with Trump about the hold on the
Ukraine aid is accurate.
Trump's
purported statement, as described by Bolton, would directly tie the freeze on
US military aid to the President's requests that Ukraine announce
investigations into his political rivals -- undermining a key pillar of Trump's
impeachment defense that the two circumstances are unrelated.
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