By Aaron Miller-
A U.S federal judge has ruled that former national security adviser John Bolton can move forward in publishing his tell-all book despite efforts by the Trump administration to block the release because of concerns that classified information could be exposed.
The decision from U.S District Judge Royce Lamberth is a major victory for Mr Bolton in a court case that involved core First Amendment and national security concerns.
The judge’s ruling did not express ethical support for Bolton’s actions. He expressed his concerns that Mr Bolton had “gambled with the national security of the United States” by taking it upon himself to publish his memoir without formal clearance from a White House that says it was still reviewing it for classified information.
“Defendant Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States. He has exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability,” Judge Lamberth wrote.
“But these facts do not control the motion before the court. The government has failed to establish that an injunction will prevent irreparable harm.”
The ruling means that the memoir, due out on Tuesday, will reveal all that Bolton wants ears to hear.
Soon after the ruling was released, Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Bolton “broke the law by releasing Classified Information (in massive amounts). He must pay a very big price for this, as others have before him. This should never to happen again!!!”
Mr Bolton’s lawyers insisted that he had spent months addressing White House concerns about classified information and that Mr Bolton had been assured in late April by the official he was working with that the manuscript no longer contained any such material.
Censor
Mr Bolton’s team argued that the Trump administration’s efforts to block the book were a pretext to censor him for an account that the White House found unfavourable.
The Justice Department had launched a legal suit in the past week to block the book’s release and to demand that copies be retrieved.
Officials said the book contained classified information and that Mr Bolton had failed to complete a pre-publication review process to prevent improper disclosure of national security secrets in books they write.
The judge was not deterred by written submissions by U.S officials in relation to security concerns raised. with those concerns in his 10-page order.
Instead, he said:”But with 200,000 copies of the book already distributed to booksellers across the country, attempting to block its release would be futile, Judge Lamberth wrote.
Major media organisations also obtained the book and published comprehensive accounts about it.
“In taking it upon himself to publish his book without securing final approval from national intelligence authorities, Bolton may indeed have caused the country irreparable harm. But in the internet age, even a handful of copies in circulation could irrevocably destroy confidentiality,” Judge Lamberth wrote.
Just one individual with a book in hand could publish its contents from a local coffee shop, he said.
“With hundreds of thousands of copies around the globe – many in newsrooms – the damage is done. There is no restoring the status quo,” the judge wrote.