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Trump warned John Bolton of ‘legal consequences’ if he publishes his tell-all memoir, claiming that all conversations with him are classified

Date:

  • President Donald Trump warned his former national security adviser, John Bolton, of “legal consequences” over the publication of his tell-all memoir. 
  • “I will consider every conversation with me as president highly classified. So that would mean that if he wrote a book and if the book gets out, he’s broken the law,” Trump said.
  • The president does indeed have broad powers to classify and declassify information.
  • Bolton’s memoir is believed to contain multiple allegations of misconduct by the president.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump on Monday warned his former national security adviser John Bolton that he faces “legal consequences” if he presses ahead with the publication of his White House memoir.

Trump claimed that this is because he considers all their conversations to be “highly classified.” 

Trump said: “I will consider every conversation with me as president highly classified. So that would mean that if he wrote a book and if the book gets out, he’s broken the law. That’s called criminal liability. That’s a big thing.”

“I would think he would have criminal problems. I hope so,” Trump continued. “Maybe he’s not been telling the truth. He’s been known not to tell the truth.”

According to experts, any US president has the authority to classify or declassify information more or less as they deem fit. 

“The nature of the system is that the President gets to disclose what he wants,” a panel of experts wrote for the Lawfare blog. “The President determines the system of designating classified information through Executive Order, and he is entitled to depart from it at will.”

Legal analyst Jonathan Turley claimed that Bolton could face legal repercussions if the White House deemed information in the book classified. 

Bolton’s attorney, Chuck Cooper, told the Associated Press his client worked extensively with National Security Council experts to vet the the manuscript for classified material, to ensure none was published. 

In his upcoming book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” Bolton describes multiple instances of what he says was misconduct by the president in his dealings with foreign powers.

The misconduct, according to Bolton, extended beyond the Ukraine scandal that saw Trump become only the third US president in history to be impeached. 

According to a description of the book by its publisher, Bolton claims that every foreign policy move by Trump was motivated by domestic political calculations. 

“I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by reelection calculations,” Bolton writes in the book, according to the statement. 

The book describes Trump as “a President addicted to chaos, who embraced our enemies and spurned our friends, and was deeply suspicious of his own government.” 

The White House has sought to stall publication of the book, claiming that it contains classified information that has not been vetted for publication. 

Bolton, a national security hawk, clashed with Trump repeatedly before he was dismissed by the president in September 2019. 

He faced criticism for not publicly testifying during the House impeachment inquiry and Senate impeachment trial, when it emerged that his memoir would include key details of Trump’s bid for Ukraine to announce a probe into domestic political rival Joe Biden. 

The president was acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate in February. 

Bolton’s book is scheduled for publication on June 23. 

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-warns-bolton-of-legal-danger-book-claims-classified-2020-6

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