What Bolton wrote about in his memoirs, and why the White House is trying to ban their publication

The yet-unpublished book of former US National Security Advisor to the US President John Bolton has seriously upset the White House. The ex-adviser may be charged with criminal charges, the administration also requires that the book does not have to be printed in stores, writes Air force.

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Several American media outlets immediately reported on the evening of June 17 that a federal court in Washington could bring criminal charges against the former adviser to the US president for disclosing state secrets. The Department of Justice also went to court, demanding that the publishing house Simon & Schuster and Bolton himself suspend the publication of the memoirs of the former official.

The day before, June 16, the Department of Justice filed a formal lawsuit, saying that the release of Bolton's book, "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," should be delayed and the manuscript subject to additional review due to suspicions that the text contains information constituting a state secret.

The lawsuit states that Bolton, in his “more than 500-page book ... filled with classified information,” grossly violated his signed pledge of non-disclosure of state secrets. According to the Department of Justice, the manuscript can be published only after its contents are once again studied by the US National Security Council.

Bolton coordinated the text of his book with the National Security Council. Around April 27, they came to the conclusion that all secret information had been removed from it, the administration said in a statement of claim. However, in early May, a more senior Council official considered it necessary to begin an “additional check,” as a result of which he determined that classified information still remained in it. This functionary's name is Michael Ellis, he is a political appointee and former assistant to Republican Congressman Devin Nunes, known for his loyalty to Trump.

Nevertheless, already on June 17, three American publications (the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal) immediately received copies of scandalous memoirs and published their own account of the book of the ex-adviser.

What John Bolton remembered

Bolton served as adviser to the President of the United States on national security from April 2018 to September 2019, but, as it turned out, records and memoirs about this period were enough for him for 592 pages of memoirs.

According to Bolton, the US President did not know that Great Britain had nuclear weapons, and during a meeting with then Prime Minister Theresa May, he asked in surprise: “Oh, so you are a nuclear power?” He also asked John Kelly, then White House chief of staff, whether Finland was part of Russia.

The President of the United States asked about the nationality of Finland in the summer of 2018, on the eve of the meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. Following the talks, Trump said that speaking of Russian interference in the US election, he believes more in the president of the Russian Federation than in his own intelligence services.

“Putin seemed to be laughing very loudly at what he had achieved in Helsinki,” Bolton writes.

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According to the ex-adviser, in one of his conversations with Defense Secretary James Mattis, Trump suggested that the fight against Islamic State militants should be handled exclusively by Russia.

During another episode describing a telephone conversation between US and Russian presidents, Bolton recalled how Putin compared Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido with former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“It was a great example of Soviet-style propaganda,” Bolton said, adding that “Trump was largely convinced by Putin’s arguments.”

Who else does the ex-adviser mention

Bolton recalls Trump's several meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

During one of these conversations, the US president supported the colleague’s idea of ​​building correctional camps in the Xinjiang region, populated by Uighurs and Muslims of other ethnic groups. During yet another negotiation, during the G20 meeting in June 2019, Trump directly asked the Chinese leader to help him win the U.S. presidential election.

After Xi complained that China was too often criticized in the United States, the head of the White House said that representatives of the Democratic Party were to blame.

“Then, out of the blue, he turned the conversation to the upcoming U.S. election, emphasizing that China's economic capabilities could influence the campaign and asking Xi to help him win,” Bolton states in his book. “He emphasized the important role of farmers and the impact that increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat could have on the outcome of the election.”

The ex-adviser describes the head of the White House as a “strange” and “stunningly ignorant” person, arguing that foreign leaders tried to take advantage of these qualities of Trump.

For example, during a meeting in May 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave Trump a note that stated the innocence of one of the Turkish companies that was being investigated by the prosecutor's office for the Southern District of New York for violating “Iranian sanctions.”

“Trump then told Erdogan that he would take care of it,” Bolton writes. “He explained that the Southern District Attorneys are not his people, that they were appointed by Obama, but the problem will be solved when they are replaced with his people.”

The book mentions several other episodes that Bolton himself called “disturbing.” For example, during negotiations with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump unexpectedly started talking about Pearl Harbor.

And in yet another negotiation with Xi Jinping, Trump announced that the Americans are asking him to stay on as president for more than two terms.

Before a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Trump decided to shower him with “American gifts,” including goods subject to US sanctions. After the meeting with the North Korean leader, he instructed the US Secretary of State, during a visit to Pyongyang, to personally present Kim with a copy of Elton John’s Rocket Man disc, signed by the singer. Trump called the head of the DPRK “Rocket Man” on his Twitter during the aggravation of relations, but after some warming he began to try to convince others that this was not an insult, but, on the contrary, an expression of the warmth of his feelings. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was never able to deliver the gift.

On the eve of the NATO summit in the summer of 2018, the head of the White House announced the readiness of the United States to finally withdraw from the alliance if European countries do not increase funding for the military-political union in six months.

“We will simply walk away and not protect those who do not pay,” said the statement, which Trump personally dictated to Bolton.

The adviser, in his own words, tried to convince the president, but he only briefly objected: “Do you want to do something historical?”

What does Bolton think about Ukrainegate?

During the Congressional impeachment hearing, John Bolton refused to testify in the House of Representatives, although Democrats tried several times to call him.

In his book, he criticizes the Democrats, arguing that the whole process of impeachment was built incorrectly and Trump should have left his post not because of the scandal connected with Ukraine, but because of the totality of foreign policy decisions.

The ex-adviser confirms that the US president really genuinely believed that the Ukrainian authorities were acting against him, and believed in conspiracy theories that his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and other advisers had circulated.

At the same time, Bolton emphasizes that the decision to freeze military aid to Kiev in order to put pressure on newly elected President Vladimir Zelensky “extremely upset him,” and he was forced to file a complaint with the head of the Justice Department and the White House legal adviser.

“I thought this whole situation was an example of bad policy, legally questionable and unacceptable as a presidential conduct,” the author writes.

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What do they think about Trump in the White House

According to Bolton in his memoirs, intrigues flourish in the White House, and relations between presidential advisers are far from friendly. At the same time, however, analyzing in detail the actions of former colleagues, the ex-adviser prefers not to mention his own mistakes and miscalculations in a word.

In his opinion, almost all Trump's decisions during the presidency were dictated by the desire to be re-elected for a second term, and all his actions were perceived by his own subordinates with a fair amount of skepticism.

“Given the way he makes decisions, what happens if we face a real crisis like 11/XNUMX?” — the ex-adviser quotes the words of then-chief of staff John Kelly.

Bolton writes that immediately after his arrival at the White House, the same General Kelly considered it necessary to warn him.

“You can’t imagine how much I want to leave this place,” the general’s words are quoted in the book. “You'll soon realize that this is a bad place to work.”

“He [the BBC president] changes his mind about people with hindsight, sees conspiracy under every rock and remains astonishingly ignorant of how to run the White House, let alone a huge federal government,” Bolton said. .

Mentioning Trump’s talks with Kim Jong-un, the ex-adviser recalls that during a conversation between the two leaders, Secretary of State Pompeo handed him a short note.

“What an idiot,” the head of the diplomatic department allegedly wrote, commenting on the words of the US President.

Bolton argues that the behavior of the head of the White House will not change. According to him, during briefings on intelligence and national security, the president spoke more himself, and did not listen to the views of experts.

“It was useless,” John Bolton laments in his memoirs.

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