The Trump administration sued former national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday to block the publication of a book that the White House says contains classified information.
The suit in Washington’s federal court follows warnings from President Donald Trump that Bolton could face a “criminal problem” if he doesn’t halt plans to publish the book. The administration has also said the former adviser did not complete a pre-publication review to ensure that the manuscript did not contain classified material.
Bolton’s attorney, Chuck Cooper, has said Bolton worked for months with classification specialists to avoid releasing classified material. He has accused the White House of using national security information as a pretext to censor Bolton.
Bolton’s publishers claim the legal action is an attempt to stop “publication of a book it deems unflattering to the President”, Sky News reports.