John Bolton is going ahead with publishing his book. I guess he has checked which way the wind is blowing and figures that the government can try to punish him for publishing classified information but they won’t get very far before Trump loses re-election:
Former national security adviser John Bolton will argue in his forthcoming White House memoir that the House of Representatives should have broadened its impeachment inquiry beyond President Donald Trump’s relationship with Ukraine to include other facets of his foreign policy, according to the book’s publisher.
In a news release Friday, Simon & Schuster revealed that Bolton’s highly anticipated book, “The Room Where It Happened,” not only covers “chaos in the White House,” but also “assessments of major players, the president’s inconsistent, scattershot decision-making process, and his dealings with allies and enemies alike.”
Simon & Schuster said Bolton was “astonished” by Trump’s actions, and viewed him as a “president for whom getting reelected was the only thing that mattered, even if it meant endangering or weakening the nation.”
The former aide plans to write that he was “hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision” during his tenure as national security adviser, from April 2018 through September 2019, “that wasn’t driven by reelection calculations.”
In his book, Bolton “argues that the House committed impeachment malpractice by keeping their prosecution focused narrowly on Ukraine when Trump’s Ukraine-like transgressions existed across the full range of his foreign policy,” Simon & Schuster said — promising that Bolton “documents exactly what those were, and attempts by him and others in the administration to raise alarms about them.”
Simon & Schuster’s statement represents the most detailed, official preview yet of the contents of Bolton’s book ahead of its publishing on June 23. The memoir’s release has been delayed twice due to an extensive prepublication review by the National Security Council.
Other revelations from the book had been reported amid the president’s impeachment trial in the Senate, including Bolton’s claim that Trump told him he wanted to continue withholding U.S. government aid from Ukraine until officials there publicly pledged to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
The House voted to impeach Trump last December on charges of abusing his power and obstructing congressional investigations, and the Senate acquitted him on the two articles of impeachment in February, overwhelmingly along partisan lines.
The White House took significant steps to block administration officials from testifying during the House and Senate proceedings. Bolton refused to appear for a deposition during the House impeachment inquiry. He offered to testify during Trump’s Senate trial, but a vote to allow witnesses failed.
I won’t be buying this book. Bolton could have been a patriot and testified to all of this during the impeachment trial. He wanted to make money instead and I don’t think he should be allowed to do it.
But I will be interested to see what he has to say anyway. He did take copious notes and it’s important for the historical record.