The national security official who was in charge of reviewing John Bolton’s book has accused the White House of commandeering the review process for political reasons, The New York Times reports.
Ellen Knight, the former senior director for records management for the National Security Council, says that aides to President Trump asked her to falsely state that a chapter in Bolton’s The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir contained classified information.
When she refused to do so, she was reassigned, she says.
Knight’s accusations were revealed in a letter by her lawyer filed in federal court this week. The Justice Department is suing Bolton over his book, saying that by publishing the memoir he breached a contract he had signed.
“Ms. Knight is very concerned about the politicization—or even the perceived politicization—of the prepublication review process,” her attorney, Kenneth L. Wainstein, wrote in the letter. “She is specifically concerned that the government is positioning the litigation in a way that will prevent disclosure of information that might be at odds with the narrative it has propounded since the initiation of this litigation.”
The Justice Department has pushed back on Knight’s claims, the Times reports.
“The publication of a memoir by a former national security adviser, right after his departure, is an unprecedented action, and it is not surprising that National Security Council staff would pay close attention to ensure that the book does not contain the release of classified information,” said Kerri Kupec, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
