Bolton book release delayed — again — amid government review

The publication of former White House National Security adviser John Bolton’s memoir has been further delayed while the National Security Council (NSC) reviews its contents.

The book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” will be delayed through June 23, its second delay after the release date was earlier pushed back from March 17 to May 12 amid back-and-forth between Bolton and national security officials on what he could reveal about the inner workings of the executive branch, Politico reported.

Bolton’s attorney Chuck Cooper has previously accused the White House of political interference in review procedures and denied that his client’s manuscript included any classified information.

“Ambassador Bolton has carefully sought to avoid any discussion in the manuscript of sensitive compartmented information (‘SCI’) or other classified information, and we accordingly do not believe that prepublication review is required,” Cooper wrote in a Dec. 30 letter to the NSC.

In January, however, Ellen Knight, the NSC’s senior director for records, access and information, told Cooper in a letter that the book appeared to contain “significant amounts of classified information.” The New York Times reported that in a section in the book on U.S.-Ukraine relations, Bolton wrote that President Trump personally told him he planned to withhold military aid from Ukraine until its government committed to investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The withholding of aid and the reason for it was the subject of the House’s impeachment proceedings.

Bolton had offered to testify during the Senate’s impeachment, trial but the chamber voted, largely along party lines, against allowing witnesses.