Zzzzz
If we had the Judiciary we had today back in the 50’s, the Rosenberg’s would still be alive.
Are there any judges left who can just apply the Law?
Appeal coming.
BOlton is a man with NO COUNTRYMEN!!! Everyone detests him now.
My crack cocaine shipment made it from the barn into the country. whew.
How can a sane Judge acknowledge it contains classified info an, which is illegal as hell, and then allow it?
Doesn’t matter. They already leaked the main lies which have been smacked down by Trump and Pompeo who called him a traitor.
My sense is that the whole story was just overblown nonsense. If any of the material in the book was classified then it would have been a crime for Bolton to even share it with the publisher in the first place. It wouldn’t have taken until a week before publication for it to become a national security concern.
Maybe not irreparable harm but if he discloses TS info (Top Secret shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause “exceptionally grave damage” ) lock him up.
That,in my opinion, makes the judge culpable in the release of classified information.
Bolton better hope this makes him the money he wants because he is now toxic.
War hawks in the deep state choose sides.
From the Supremes all the way down to local Judges,I have lost all respect for these idiots in black robes.
If Bolton’s book does contain National Security info. then isn’t our Attorney General supposed to have Bolton arrested and charged? Or is Bolton another one of the many that are above the law?
I will bet on the latter.
All the “juicy” parts have already been leaked
The leaks sound like the usual ‘Orange Man said bad things’ so far.
🙄
That is not what was before the court. As far as enjoining publication, the court found that “the horse is already out of the barn.” It is too late to stop publication. But it is not too late to sue for any and all profits from the publication and to bring a criminal case for publishing classified material.
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.219024/gov.uscourts.dcd.219024.27.0_6_1.pdf
United States v. Bolton, MEMORANDUM ORDER (20 Jun 2020)
III. DISCUSSIONa. Is the government likely to succeed on the merits?
Yes. Bolton disputes that his book contains any such classified information and emphasizes his months-long compliance with the prepublication review process. He bristles at the mixed messages sent by prepublication review personnel and questions the motives of intelligence officers. Bolton could have sued the government and sought relief in court. Instead, he opted out of the review process before its conclusion. Unilateral fast-tracking carried the benefit of publicity and sales, and the cost of substantial risk exposure. This was Bolton's bet: If he is right and the book does not contain classified information, he keeps the upside mentioned above; but if he is wrong, he stands to lose his profits from the book deal, exposes himself to criminal liability, and imperils national security. Bolton was wrong.
The government submitted classified declarations for the Court's ex parte review in camera. ECF No. 4. On June 19, 2020, the Court held a sealed ex parte hearing for further in camera review with the government. ECF 6/19/20. Upon reviewing the classified materials, as well as the declarations filed on the public docket, ECF No. 3-1-5, the Court is persuaded that Defendant Bolton likely jeopardized national security by disclosing classified information in violation of his nondisclosure agreement obligations.
Bolton was the National Security Advisor to the President. He was entrusted with countless national secrets and privy to countless sensitive dealings. To Bolton, this is a selling point: His book is entitled The Room Where It Happened. He rushed to write an account of his behind-closed-doors experiences and produced over 500 pages of manuscript for review. Not four months later, Bolton pulled the plug on the process and sent the still-under-review manuscript to the publisher for printing. Many Americans are unable to renew their passports within four months, but Bolton complains that reviewing hundreds of pages of a National Security Advisor's tell-all deserves a swifter timetable. Access to sensitive intelligence is rarely consolidated in individuals, and it comes as no surprise to the Court that the government requested several iterations of review headed by multiple officers. But what is reasonable to the Court was intolerable to Bolton, and he proceeded to publication without so much as an email notifying the government.
It is well-settled that a mandated prepublication review process is not an unconstitutional prior restraint. This Circuit upheld the Central Intelligence Agency's prepublication review scheme in McGehee v. Casey, 718 F.2d 1137 (D.C. Cir. 1983). There, the Circuit held that “the government has a substantial interest in assuring secrecy in the conduct of foreign intelligence operations.” McGehee, 718 F.2d at 1140. First Amendment rights are preserved so long as restrictions “protect a substantial government interest unrelated to the suppression of free speech,” and “the restriction [is] narrowly drawn to ‘restrict speech no more than is necessary to protect the substantial government interest.’” Id. at 1142-43 (quoting Brown v. Glines, 444 U.S.348, 354-55 (1980)). The Supreme Court agrees: “[T]his Court's cases make clear that—even in the absence of an express agreement—the CIA [can] act[] to protect substantial government interests by imposing reasonable restrictions on employee activities that in other contexts might be protected by the First Amendment.” Snepp v. United States, 444 U.S. 507, 510 n.3 (1980). For the purposes of resolving this motion, the Court is satisfied that the government's prepublication review of Bolton's book fell within these bounds.
The NDAs barred publication of classified materials. Bolton likely published classified materials. The government is likely to succeed on the merits. But a single factor is not sufficient for an injunction to issue—the Court now proceeds to the second.