Trump administration sues Bolton over book dispute

[pauldun170]

Time to see if Bolton has the balls to call the Adminstration out on their threats

And a source close to him says he is intent on publishing the book as scheduled Tuesday, meaning he expects to deal with any ramifications from the administration in the aftermath, not before.

Trump said Bolton would have "criminal problems" if the book was published as is. The lawsuit filed Tuesday is a civil suit, and carries no criminal penalties.

In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union compared the suit to the Nixon administration's failed attempt to block newspapers' publication of the Pentagon Papers, which detailed a secret history of the Vietnam War.
"A half-century ago the Supreme Court rejected a similar attempt by the Nixon administration to block the publication of the Pentagon Papers, and since then it has been firmly established that prior restraints on publication are unconstitutional and un-American," the ACLU said.
Early revelations from the book have already made waves in Washington.

Trump administration sues Bolton over book dispute

The Trump administration asked a federal judge on Tuesday to order former national security adviser John Bolton to stop the publication of his upcoming book on his White House tenure, arguing in a lawsuit that Bolton had breached non-disclosure agreements and was risking national security by...

www.cnn.com

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

In all honesty, I really don't care for "white knights" coming out of the Trump administration in order to try and make money.

This guy is like 6th or so to do it I think?

Just saying, go release info and talk about how dumb he is - but attention grabbing to try and sell books doesn't exactly make you sound useful.

 

[fskimospy]

In all honesty, I really don't care for "white knights" coming out of the Trump administration in order to try and make money.

This guy is like 6th or so to do it I think?

Just saying, go release info and talk about how dumb he is - but attention grabbing to try and sell books doesn't exactly make you sound useful.

Bolton is a grifter but if he has information about Trump’s misconduct then he should make it public before the election because voters should have all the facts. He REALLY should have made it public during impeachment, to further drive home the lawlessness of Republicans in Congress as well as Trump but better late then never.

With any luck for the next five months it will be a stream of books and leaks from family and administration officials. We have at least two more to look forward to and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more.

 

[hal2kilo]

Bolton is a grifter but if he has information about Trump’s misconduct then he should make it public before the election because voters should have all the facts. He REALLY should have made it public during impeachment, to further drive home the lawlessness of Republicans in Congress as well as Trump but better late then never.

With any luck for the next five months it will be a stream of books and leaks from family and administration officials. We have at least two more to look forward to and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more.

Oh yea, but there's more.....

Trump niece's bombshell book to detail family 'trauma, neglect and abuse'

Publisher says Mary L Trump, a trained psychologist, describes ‘a nightmare of traumas and destructive relationships’

www.theguardian.com

And with similar reaction...

Trump Considers Suing His Niece Over Her Tell-All Book, Saying She Signed an NDA

The president has long favored using legal threats to stop people from writing books critical of him. Going after his own family may be next.

www.thedailybeast.com

 

[Vic]

I haven't looked, how many MAGA 'free speech warriors' liked Trump's threat to violate the 1a here?

 

[fskimospy]

Unless these writers/publishers are stupid they must have known Trump would sue them so presumably this is baked in and they don’t care.

 

[UNCjigga]

Oh yea, but there's more.....

Trump niece's bombshell book to detail family 'trauma, neglect and abuse'

Publisher says Mary L Trump, a trained psychologist, describes ‘a nightmare of traumas and destructive relationships’

www.theguardian.com

And with similar reaction...

Trump Considers Suing His Niece Over Her Tell-All Book, Saying She Signed an NDA

The president has long favored using legal threats to stop people from writing books critical of him. Going after his own family may be next.

www.thedailybeast.com

What kind of family patriarch requires that extended family signs NDAs? Is this, like, a normal thing for rich people??

 

[esquared]

What kind of family patriarch requires that extended family signs NDAs? Is this, like, a normal thing for rich people??

From the article
"Mary Trump signed an NDA following a 2001 settlement after litigation disputing Fred Trump’s estate, according to people familiar with the matter. That NDA states she is not allowed to publish anything regarding the litigation or her relationship with Donald, Maryanne and Robert. "

INSIDE TRUMPS' BITTER BATTLE Nephew's ailing baby caught in the middle

INSIDE TRUMPS' BITTER BATTLE Nephew's ailing baby caught in the middle By HEIDI EVANS DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Even when it comes to a sick baby in his family, Donald Trump is all business. The megabuilder and his siblings Robert and Maryanne terminated their nephew's family...

www.nydailynews.com

 

[Fenixgoon]

so, are we betting that copies of these books will leak, or will they actually get published in full?

the bolton book has been going on for what seems like a while now.

 

[woolfe9998]

Eski said it above. This isn't about Bolton as a person, at all. This is about information he has about our POTUS which the public has a right to know, and which may be pertinent to our choices in November.

As for Trump's threat of criminal liability, I can only assume that the information in the book has been carefully checked to make sure there is nothing classified in there.

As to civil liability i.e. whether there is anything defamatory, well we'll see if Trump can prove that in court. LOL. And I will add that this lawsuit opens Trump and his lackeys to civil discovery, including depositions and document production. Haha.

I predict he'll drop the suit before discovery even happens, because it isn't a serious lawsuit. It's just a threat meant to suppress whatever it is Bolton is going to say in the book which may be politically damaging to Trump.

 

[JEDIYoda]

From the article
"Mary Trump signed an NDA following a 2001 settlement after litigation disputing Fred Trump’s estate, according to people familiar with the matter. That NDA states she is not allowed to publish anything regarding the litigation or her relationship with Donald, Maryanne and Robert. "

INSIDE TRUMPS' BITTER BATTLE Nephew's ailing baby caught in the middle

INSIDE TRUMPS' BITTER BATTLE Nephew's ailing baby caught in the middle By HEIDI EVANS DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Even when it comes to a sick baby in his family, Donald Trump is all business. The megabuilder and his siblings Robert and Maryanne terminated their nephew's family...

www.nydailynews.com

True, but I believe the courts have nullified some NDA`s as being illegal..

 

[JEDIYoda]

Eski said it above. This isn't about Bolton as a person, at all. This is about information he has about our POTUS which the public has a right to know, and which may be pertinent to our choices in November.

As for Trump's threat of criminal liability, I can only assume that the information in the book has been carefully checked to make sure there is nothing classified in there.

As to civil liability i.e. whether there is anything defamatory, well we'll see if Trump can prove that in court. LOL. And I will add that this lawsuit opens Trump and his lackeys to civil discovery, including depositions and document production. Haha.

I predict he'll drop the suit before discovery even happens, because it isn't a serious lawsuit. It's just a threat meant to suppress whatever it is Bolton is going to say in the book which may be politically damaging to Trump.

exactly! All Trump is trying to do is push back the release of this book!!

 

[Aegeon]

Eski said it above. This isn't about Bolton as a person, at all. This is about information he has about our POTUS which the public has a right to know, and which may be pertinent to our choices in November...

I predict he'll drop the suit before discovery even happens, because it isn't a serious lawsuit. It's just a threat meant to suppress whatever it is Bolton is going to say in the book which may be politically damaging to Trump.

The thing is as I said in the other thread talking about this issue, if this is the basic goal this is going to be an utterly miserable legal failure. The White House simply waited too long for this to possibly be effective in preventing the information in the book from getting out and should have done this earlier if they were to attempt this legal long shot. Even if Trump administration gets a judge to blatantly ignore past rulings including the Supreme Court one on the Pentagon Papers and issue an injunction preventing release, copies of the book will at a minimum already be in the mail to bookstores where as noted a few will go "missing" and a scanned version of the book will circulate the internet. Assuming they pursue this, Trump has essentially guaranteed that the information in the book will get more attention than it would have otherwise. (At this point Bolton realistically couldn't block the release on his own even if he wanted to with it being the publisher being the one on the hook for major costs, which would be even worse if they actually agreed to change any of the book text, but in practice merely shipping back all the book copies and storing them until after November would be a huge cost for the publisher at this point.)

I have heard a couple lawyers speculate that once a pirated copy is circulating on the internet there is no longer a viable reason for the court to actually block publication (since the information is already effectively out at that point), so this stunt may solely succeed in boosting sales of the book as well and merely possible delay the start of sales a few days. I wonder if the lawyers involved know this is pointless and counterproductive (and probably at least made some effort to make this clear) but are doing this to appease Trump since he insisted.

Its worth noting that Trump perhaps unsurprisingly seriously undermined any actual effort to prosecute Bolton or the government seizing the profits from the book because Trump seems to be publicly admitting to a bad faith effort to try to abuse his classification authority as opposed to limiting it to valid national security grounds vs the public's right to know.

 

[evident]

If there's one book that should be pirated and widely disseminated this is the one.

 

[alien42]

so, are we betting that copies of these books will leak, or will they actually get published in full?

the bolton book has been going on for what seems like a while now.

the books have already been printed, sent to distributors and advanced copies have been sent out to media. Stephen Colbert got his copy last Friday. There is absolutely nothing the Trump admin can do at this point to stop this book from getting out.

 

[pcgeek11]

Hell publish it and let the courts and people settle it.

 

[eelw]

If there's one book that should be pirated and widely disseminated this is the one.

Bolton already got some money. And will probably get more as the orange baby will attempt to buy out as many copies as possible.

 

[woolfe9998]

The thing is as I said in the other thread talking about this issue, if this is the basic goal this is going to be an utterly miserable legal failure. The White House simply waited too long for this to possibly be effective in preventing the information in the book from getting out and should have done this earlier if they were to attempt this legal long shot. Even if Trump administration gets a judge to blatantly ignore past rulings including the Supreme Court one on the Pentagon Papers and issue an injunction preventing release, copies of the book will at a minimum already be in the mail to bookstores where as noted a few will go "missing" and a scanned version of the book will circulate the internet. Assuming they pursue this, Trump has essentially guaranteed that the information in the book will get more attention than it would have otherwise. (At this point Bolton realistically couldn't block the release on his own even if he wanted to with it being the publisher being the one on the hook for major costs, which would be even worse if they actually agreed to change any of the book text, but in practice merely shipping back all the book copies and storing them until after November would be a huge cost for the publisher at this point.)

I have heard a couple lawyers speculate that once a pirated copy is circulating on the internet there is no longer a viable reason for the court to actually block publication (since the information is already effectively out at that point), so this stunt may solely succeed in boosting sales of the book as well and merely possible delay the start of sales a few days. I wonder if the lawyers involved know this is pointless and counterproductive (and probably at least made some effort to make this clear) but are doing this to appease Trump since he insisted.

Its worth noting that Trump perhaps unsurprisingly seriously undermined any actual effort to prosecute Bolton or the government seizing the profits from the book because Trump seems to be publicly admitting to a bad faith effort to try to abuse his classification authority as opposed to limiting it to valid national security grounds vs the public's right to know.

In fairness to Trump here, I should point out that they never had a basis for any legal action, be it an injunction or for money damages, until they actually saw a copy of the manuscript. That I presume was given to the White House as a standard practice to allow them to check for classified information, likely in the past two weeks.

Oh, and you are correct about the futility of what they are trying to do at this stage. It's just that they probably couldn't have done it earlier.

 

[Aegeon]

In fairness to Trump here, I should point out that they never had a basis for any legal action, be it an injunction or for money damages, until they actually saw a copy of the manuscript. That I presume was given to the White House as a standard practice to allow them to check for classified information, likely in the past two weeks.

This is actually completely wrong. Bolton's lawyer has clarified in an article that the White House has known what the current version of the book has looked like since at least April 27th, with this being after Bolton and his lawyer agreed to a bunch of edits.

During the April 13 call, Ms. Knight said she would review the full manuscript one more time, to recheck resolved issues and ensure she hadn’t overlooked anything. That final review resulted in two further phone calls, on April 21 and 24, in which she conveyed her final round of edits. Mr. Bolton promptly responded with the revisions by April 24. On April 27, after clarifying one previously discussed edit, Ms. Knight confirmed “that’s the last edit I really have to provide for you.” The lengthy, laborious process was over.

Opinion | The White House vs. John Bolton

Officials are attempting to use national security as a pretext to prevent the publication of his memoir.

www.wsj.com

Basically Bolton's lawyer clarified that after this they could not get straight clearance from the White House to publish (with the White House actually seeing initial drafts of the book prior to January 23rd) and eventually they and the publisher decided to just move forward and publish it anyway.

The thing is this gave Trump's lawyers ground to pursue a legal case much earlier, or at minimum be basically ready with the potential legal argument and ready to file for an injunction the moment they had any indication the publisher was moving forward with just releasing the book if they were competent and this lawsuit was truly about successfully blocking its release. (The White House at a minimum clearly knew the book publication was moving forward by June 8th, but they likely could have known this earlier if this was truly enough of a concern and there were genuine national security concerns regarding the book publication.)

 

[woolfe9998]

This is actually completely wrong. Bolton's lawyer has clarified in an article that the White House has known what the current version of the book has looked like since at least April 27th, with this being after Bolton and his lawyer agreed to a bunch of edits.

Opinion | The White House vs. John Bolton

Officials are attempting to use national security as a pretext to prevent the publication of his memoir.

www.wsj.com

Basically Bolton's lawyer clarified that after this they could not get straight clearance from the White House to publish (with the White House actually seeing initial drafts of the book prior to January 23rd) and eventually they and the publisher decided to just move forward and publish it anyway.

The thing is this gave Trump's lawyers ground to pursue a legal case much earlier, or at minimum be basically ready with the potential legal argument and ready to file for an injunction the moment they had any indication the publisher was moving forward with just releasing the book if they were competent and this lawsuit was truly about successfully blocking its release. (The White House at a minimum clearly knew the book publication was moving forward by June 8th, but they likely could have known this earlier if this was truly enough of a concern and there were genuine national security concerns regarding the book publication.)

OK, point accepted. I was under the impression that these copies are usually handed out nearer to the time of publication.

 

[trenchfoot]

I'm thinking Bolton is using this book as a hatchet job against Trump as well as notable others of whom got on his "to do list" including Democrats that "made him look bad" on the world stage.

It's a guess fer sure, yet it seems like an opportune time for him to take some swings at anyone of whom he needs to settle scores with.

 

[pcgeek11]

I really don't see how anyone can take this book seriously. Bolton has been vilified
by the left for decades as a liar and Satan incarnate.

But now that he has written a tell all book they are going to believe every word. I find it rather humorous.

 

[TheVrolok]

Eski said it above. This isn't about Bolton as a person, at all. This is about information he has about our POTUS which the public has a right to know, and which may be pertinent to our choices in November.

As for Trump's threat of criminal liability, I can only assume that the information in the book has been carefully checked to make sure there is nothing classified in there.

As to civil liability i.e. whether there is anything defamatory, well we'll see if Trump can prove that in court. LOL. And I will add that this lawsuit opens Trump and his lackeys to civil discovery, including depositions and document production. Haha.

I predict he'll drop the suit before discovery even happens, because it isn't a serious lawsuit. It's just a threat meant to suppress whatever it is Bolton is going to say in the book which may be politically damaging to Trump.

Every word of this.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Eski said it above. This isn't about Bolton as a person, at all. This is about information he has about our POTUS which the public has a right to know, and which may be pertinent to our choices in November.

You do realize that there is such a thing as classified information - right?

Just because you have information doesn't mean you have a right to spread it.


Not saying that is the case here, but still... Just based on your reply here it doesn't look like you acknowledge that confidential information IS a thing.

 

[K1052]

You do realize that there is such a thing as classified information - right?

Just because you have information doesn't mean you have a right to spread it.


Not saying that is the case here, but still... Just based on your reply here it doesn't look like you acknowledge that confidential information IS a thing.

Trump literally just claimed that every conversation he has is classified. Which isn't, in any way, how it works.

He's just trying to prevent unflattering and damaging stuff from coming out like he always does.