Tag: John Bolton

Suddenly Kellyanne Conway Is Eager For ‘Fact Checking’

Senior White House aide Kellyanne Conway claimed on Wednesday that she worries that there is “very little fact-checking” done in books about Donald Trump.

Conway’s remarks came after she was questioned about an upcoming book from former Trump national security adviser John Bolton. The Trump administration has sued Bolton before the book’s release.

The book reportedly contains several personally embarrassing revelations about Trump.

Without making any specific claims, Conway said that she had seen errors in previous books that have exposed the inner workings of the Trump administration. She called on reporters to apply fact-checking to “all types of work.” Continue reading.

Bolton: Trump moves in office guided by reelection concerns

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump “pleaded” with China’s Xi Jinping during a 2019 summit to help his reelection prospects, according to a scathing new book by former Trump adviser John Bolton that accuses the president of being driven by political calculations when making national security decisions.

The White House worked furiously to block the book, asking a federal court for an emergency temporary restraining order Wednesday against its release.

Bolton’s allegations that Trump solicited Chinese help for his reelection effort carried echoes of Trump’s attempt to get political help from Ukraine, which led to his impeachment. Continue reading.

Trump ‘unfit for office,’ lacks ‘competence,’ Bolton says in TV interview

Washington Post logoFormer national security adviser John Bolton says in a television interview that President Trump is “unfit for office” and lacks the “competence to carry out the job.”

Bolton made the comments to ABC News as the former administration insider sought to promote a new book that Trump claimed in a tweet Thursday is “a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad.” Excerpts of the Bolton interview aired Thursday.

“I don’t think he’s fit for office. I don’t think he has the competence to carry out the job,” Bolton said during the ABC interview, which is scheduled to air in full Sunday. “There really isn’t any guiding principle that I was able to discern other than what’s good for Donald Trump’s reelection. I think he was so focused on the reelection that longer-term considerations fell by the wayside.” Continue reading.

Barr Threatens Suit To Stop Bolton’s Book Because The First Amendment Is, Like, More Of A Suggestion Really

I’ll take PRIOR RESTRAINT for $600, Alex!

“Any conversation with me is classified,” President Trump insisted at a press conference yesterday. Because once we had a scholar of constitutional law as president, and now we have … the opposite of that.

The president’s voluminous knickers are in a twist this week over the upcoming release of Ambassador John Bolton’s book “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” which is scheduled to hit the shelves on June 23.

As a former federal employee, Bolton had to submit his manuscript to the National Security Council to ensure it contained no classified material. Since December 30, when he dropped the 592-page tell all about his time as Trump’s National Security Advisor on the NSC’s doorstep, Bolton undertook multiple rounds of revision in coordination with Ellen Knight, the agency’s senior director for prepublication review. Continue reading.

Here is why Bill Barr’s lawsuit against John Bolton may only have an ‘audience of one’: Law professor

On Tuesday, the Department of Justice filed a civil suit against President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton over the publication of his tell-all book alleging misconduct in the administration.

In a lengthy Twitter thread, law professor Rick Hasen explained why the lawsuit is likely just for show, to put Trump’s mind at ease, rather than to actually block the book or win any sort of legal relief.

Rick Hasen

✔@rickhasen

I’ve looked at the Bolton complaint, and a bit about the remedies portion t (https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/Bolton.pdf …).
The suit seeks declaratory relief (saying Bolton breached agreements), a constructive trust (disgorging any profits), and what looks like an injunction /1

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Trump administration sues to block publication of John Bolton’s book

Axios logoThe big picture: The memoir by Bolton, a prolific note taker, is expected to shed light on alleged misconduct by President Trump related to his dealings with foreign countries. Trump claimed on Monday that Bolton would have a “very strong criminal problem” if he proceeded with publishing the book, stating: “I will consider every conversation with me as president to be highly classified.”

The other side: Bolton’s lawyer Charles Cooper said in a statement in response to the lawsuit, “We are reviewing the Government’s complaint, and will respond in due course.”

  • Cooper claimed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week that his client has already undergone four months of “perhaps the most extensive and intensive prepublication review in NSC history,” before the White House official who Bolton was coordinating with suddenly stopped responding.
  • The attorney claims that the White House has purposely stalled the process as a “transparent attempt to use national security as a pretext to censor Mr. Bolton.”
  • Bolton pointed on Twitter to the following statement from the ACLU: “50 years ago, SCOTUS rejected the Nixon administration’s attempt to block the publication of the Pentagon Papers, establishing that government censorship is unconstitutional. Any Trump administration efforts to stop John Bolton’s book from being published are doomed to fail.” Continue reading.

Trump calls it ‘inappropriate’ for Bolton to write book

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Monday said it was “totally inappropriate” for former national security adviser John Bolton to write a memoir about his work in the White House and claimed the book contains “highly classified” information. 

“If he wrote a book, I can’t imagine that he can because that’s highly classified information,” Trump, who said he hadn’t read the book, told reporters during a meeting in the Cabinet Room.

“I will consider every conversation with me as president highly classified. So that would mean if he wrote a book and if the book gets out, he’s broken the law and I would think he would have criminal problems,” Trump continued. Continue reading.

George Conway explains the ‘fateful misjudgment’ John Bolton made

AlterNet logoFormer national security adviser John Bolton made a mistake he didn’t think about.

While many are boycotting the purchase of his upcoming book because he refused to testify to the illegal behavior of his former boss, President Donald Trump, according to Republican lawyer George Conway, that isn’t the mistake.

“Imagine the book Bolton could have written had he testified,” suggested Conway in a Washington Post column. Continue reading.

Bolton rips Trump: ‘Getting reelected was the only thing that mattered’

The former national security adviser also argues in a new memoir that Trump took a series of actions that might warrant impeachment.

President Donald Trump repeatedly endangered national security — and committed a series of potentially impeachable offenses — to boost his reelection prospects, former national security adviser John Bolton argues in a forthcoming White House memoir.

Bolton writes that the House should have broadened its impeachment inquiry to other areas of his foreign policy, contending that he can document — and identify witnesses to — “Ukraine-like transgressions … across the full range of his foreign policy,” according to a description by Simon & Schuster released Friday.

Despite his swipe at the House, Bolton famously refused to cooperate with House investigators as they pursued allegations that Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his Democratic adversaries. Continue reading.

John Bolton’s new book will allege Trump misconduct with other countries — not just Ukraine: report

AlterNet logoFormer Trump national security adviser John Bolton’s long-delayed book will reportedly allege that President Donald Trump’s corruption of American foreign policy went beyond his attempts to shake down the Ukrainian government for dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden.

According to Axios, Bolton’s book will argue that there was “Trump misconduct with other countries” besides Ukraine, although the publication’s source did not go into specifics about which countries are involved.

Trump’s attempts to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate Biden by putting a hold on its military aid led to him being impeached on abuse of power charges in the House of Representatives last year. Continue reading.