National Security Council says the former Trump adviser’s book contains ‘significant amounts’ of classified information that must be cut
By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg and Rebecca Ballhaus, Jan. 29, 2020

The National Security Council said the manuscript of former national security adviser John Bolton’s forthcoming book contains “significant amounts” of classified information and can’t be published in its current form, according to a letter the council sent to Mr. Bolton’s lawyer.

“Under federal law and the nondisclosure agreements your client signed as a condition for gaining access to classified information, the manuscript may not be published or otherwise disclosed without the deletion of this classified information,” said the letter, dated Jan. 23, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The letter was signed by Ellen Knight, senior director for Records, Access and Information Security Management at the NSC.

Mr. Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” is expected to go on sale on March 17, and will be published by Simon & Schuster, a unit of ViacomCBS Inc.

On Sunday, the New York Times published details of the manuscript, including that Mr. Bolton alleges President Trump told him in August that he wanted to keep aid to Ukraine frozen until the country aided investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, one of Mr. Trump’s top 2020 rivals, and Mr. Biden’s son. Chuck Cooper, Mr. Bolton’s lawyer, confirmed the report.

The claim goes to the heart of Democrats’ case for impeachment and contradicts the White House’s argument that the decision to hold up nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine wasn’t related to the president’s push for investigations there.

It isn’t known whether any of the details that have been revealed about the book were among those the NSC deemed classified.

Mr. Trump said in a tweet Monday that he never told Mr. Bolton the aid was linked to the investigations, and in another tweet Wednesday described Mr. Bolton’s book as “a nasty & untrue book,” adding, “All Classified National Security. Who would do this?”

Mr. Cooper, the recipient of the NSC letter, later Wednesday released his email response to the NSC, dated Jan. 24, in which he sought urgent guidance from the NSC on what it deemed classified ahead of possible testimony by Mr. Bolton before the impeachment trial.

“As you are no doubt aware, the House Managers in the Senate impeachment trial have made clear their intention to seek Ambassador Bolton’s testimony at trial,” he wrote. “If he is called to testify, it seems certain that he will be asked questions that will elicit much of the information contained in the chapter of his manuscript dealing with his involvement in matters relating to Ukraine.”

He said that while he did not believe that information “could reasonably be considered classified,” he asked the NSC to turn over the results of its review of that chapter as soon as possible. Mr. Cooper said he didn’t receive a response to his email.

Former administration officials who have held a security clearance are required to submit manuscripts to the agency that held their clearance—in Mr. Bolton’s case, the NSC. Federal law prohibits the disclosure of classified information. As part of the process of obtaining a security clearance, Mr. Bolton had to agree to obtain signoff from the administration before disclosing information about his time at the White House, including by writing a book.

A spokesman for Simon & Schuster and a spokeswoman for Mr. Bolton declined to comment.

On Dec. 30, Mr. Cooper said Mr. Bolton’s manuscript had been submitted to the NSC for “standard pre-publication security review for classified information.”

Mr. Bolton’s book became available for preorders on Sunday night, and has generated enough interest to rank at No. 10 on Amazon’s Top 100 best seller list and No. 14 on the Barnes & Noble Top 100 list as of Wednesday afternoon.

A group of former U.S. intelligence and military officials in April filed suit against the Trump administration over rules requiring them to submit book manuscripts and other writings for review, arguing that the system of pre-publication review amounts to unconstitutional censorship.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house...-is-11580332992