WASHINGTON, June 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A US judge refused to
block the release of a tell-all book in which President Donald Trump’s
former national security advisor describes him as corrupt and
incompetent.
With the book already shipped to stores for sale next week, Judge
Royce Lambert wrote that John Bolton appeared to have failed to get
written White House agreement that his memoir contained nothing
classified.
“While Bolton’s unilateral conduct raises grave national security
concerns, the government has not established that an injunction is an
appropriate remedy,” the judge wrote.
The judge said a review of passages that the government contends
contain classified material has persuaded him that Bolton “likely
jeopardized national security through publication.”
The book, entitled “The Room Where it Happened,” has been widely
shipped to bookstores for publication Tuesday and many of its most
damning allegations against Trump have been reported in the media.
It is Bolton’s portrait of 17 months up close with Trump, until he
was ousted in September.
The picture — which Trump characterizes as “fiction” — is ugly.
According to Bolton, a lifelong Republican who stands firmly on the
right of the party, Trump is not “fit for office.”
He describes Trump “pleading” with Chinese President Xi Jinping
during trade negotiations to boost his chances of re-election this
November by buying more US farm products to help Trump win votes in
agricultural states.
Separately, a US prosecutor who investigated allies of President Donald Trump insisted he had no intention of quitting after the attorney general issued a press release announcing his resignation.
Geoffrey Berman oversaw the prosecution of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and probed advisor Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to discredit the president’s political opponents since he was appointed to head the powerful Southern District of New York attorney’s office in 2018.
He also investigated two associates of Giuliani accused of campaign finance violations and helping dig up dirt on Trump’s election challenger Joe Biden, which became the subject of an impeachment inquiry into the president.
Attorney General William Barr announced Berman’s resignation late on Friday and said Trump would nominate Securities and Exchange Commission chief Jay Clayton as his replacement.
“I thank Geoffrey Berman, who is stepping down after two-and-a-half years of service as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York,” Barr said.
But Berman said he first learned of his apparent departure from Barr’s press release.
“I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning,” Berman wrote.
The Trump administration has fired several officials tasked with government oversight.
State Department inspector general Steve Linick was removed from his position last month after running a misconduct probe into Washington’s top diplomat and steadfast Trump ally Mike Pompeo.
Berman’s predecessor in the attorney’s office, Preet Bharara, was sacked after he refused Trump’s demand for his resignation. — NNN-AGENCIES
