Judge Royce Lamberth questioned the government’s attorneys about why they were bringing litigation against Bolton now, after the book is already in the public sphere.
A federal judge, comparing former national security adviser John Bolton’s upcoming book to a horse that’s already « out of the barn, » is considering the government’s argument that the book should be stopped from publication because it contains classified material.
This is the horse that’s out of the barn: Several hundred thousand copies of the book are sitting in warehouses across the country, ready to be released next week, an excerpt has been published in the Wall Street Journal, and many news organizations have obtained the book and published reports on what it contains.
Judge Royce Lamberth questioned the department’s attorneys about why they were bringing their litigation now, after the book is already in the public sphere.
David Morrell, arguing for the Justice Department, said this is not an « all or nothing proposition, » and the government still has an interest in stemming the flow of classified text. Yes, copies of the book have been disseminated, Morrell said, but it is still within Lamberth’s jurisdiction to stop the sales of audio books and e-books.
