A federal judge rejected former national security adviser John Bolton’s effort to throw out a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration claiming he published classified information in his memoir and violated nondisclosure agreements he had with the White House, NBC News reports.
In a 27-page opinion, District Court Judge Royce Lamberth determined the lawsuit will move ahead because the Trump administration presented “sufficient facts to support its claim” that Bolton likely could have violated the contracts in place by bypassing a required prepublication approval for the book.
The judge’s decision means the Justice Department can move forward with its attempt to seize profits from the book "The Room Where it Happened."
Justice Department lawyers have asked the judge to rule for them on summary judgment, without a trial. The judge said he will decide on the request soon.
In June, the government filed its lawsuit against Bolton alleging he was required to wait until the White House reviewed his book for classified information prior to publishing it because he had a top-level security clearance while he served the president.
The government’s suit states that Bolton and the book’s publisher scheduled the book's release before the review process was completed.
Bolton argued that he was required only to wait for a White House official's confirmation that the book was free of classified information, which he received in April. The White House then launched another review, conducted by a more senior official, which Bolton's lawyer described in court as "a transparent effort to prevent Ambassador Bolton from revealing embarrassing facts about the president's conduct in office."
The Justice Department has also launched a separate criminal investigation of Bolton's actions.
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