'The Damage Is Done': Judge Rules Bolton Can Publish Book Despite National Security Risk

A federal judge ruled Saturday that former national security adviser John Bolton can move forward in publishing his tell-all book despite efforts by the Trump administration to block its release because of concerns that classified information could be exposed.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth made clear his concerns that Bolton had “gambled with the national security of the United States” by opting out of a pre-publication review process meant to prevent government officials from spilling classified secrets in memoirs.

The memoir, due out Tuesday, criticizes President Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions during the year-and-a-half that Bolton spent in the White House.

Lamberth frowned upon the way Bolton went about publishing the book.

Bolton took it “upon himself to publish his book without securing final approval from national intelligence authorities” and perhaps caused irreparable harm to national security, Lamberth said.

But with 200,000 copies already distributed to booksellers across the country, attempting to block its release would be futile, the judge wrote.

“A single dedicated individual with a book in hand could publish its contents far and wide from his local coffee shop,” Lamberth wrote.

“With hundreds of thousands of copies around the globe — many in newsrooms — the damage is done. There is no restoring the status quo.”