司法部提起民事诉讼周二对阵前者国家安全顾问约翰·博尔顿试图阻止他即将出版询问一位联邦法官的回忆录《它发生的房间》命令他完成出版前审查，并在即将出版的书中“未经书面授权不得披露机密信息”
这份长达27页的文件还要求法官命令博尔顿采取“力所能及的”行动，停止出版他目前正在起草的书，并“收回和处置”任何可能已经发送给第三方的副本。DOJ还要求命令波顿不要进一步披露他在书中写的信息，也不要“以任何形式或媒体”公布细节...没有事先获得书面许可。”
“美国不寻求审查被告手稿的任何合法方面;该文件称:“它只是寻求一项命令，要求被告完成出版前审查程序，并采取一切必要措施，确保只有经过该程序正式授权的手稿——因此不含机密信息——才能公开传播。”。
此外，DOJ在文件中表示，它可能会寻求没收波顿从《发生的房间》中获得的任何利润，要求法官下令对波顿可能从该书出版中获得的“所有资金、收益、利润、版税和其他优势”进行核算。
波顿的律师查克·库珀告诉美国广播公司新闻，他们正在审查投诉，并将在适当的时候做出回应。
2019年4月30日，在DC首都华盛顿，白宫国家安全顾问约翰·博尔顿在白宫西翼外对记者说。
在《华尔街日报》本周早些时候的一篇专栏文章中，波顿的律师查克·库珀表示，白宫试图指控波顿违反其保密协议，仅仅是试图“审查波顿”
库珀说:“在白宫沉默了几周之后，经过四个月的密集审查，以及——正如艾森伯格在信中承认的那样——在新闻报道提醒白宫波顿的书将于6月23日出版之后，这一最后一刻的指控才出现。”。“这显然是企图利用国家安全作为审查博尔顿的借口，侵犯了他就最重要的公共问题发表言论的宪法权利。”
周二提交的文件提供了对出版前审查背后的过程的深入了解，承认国家安全委员会的高级记录主任艾伦·奈特已经完成了对该书的审查，并“判断手稿草案不包含机密信息。”
下一个接受审查的人是国家安全委员会的副法律顾问迈克尔·埃利斯(Michael Ellis)，根据提交的文件，他“担心手稿似乎仍包含机密信息，部分原因是作者任职的同一届政府仍在任，手稿描述了有关当前外交政策问题的敏感信息。”
DOJ在文件中声称，以目前的形式，手稿“包含某些段落，有些长达几个段落——包含机密的国家安全信息”
“事实上，国家安全委员会已经确定手稿中的信息属于机密、机密和最高机密级别，”文件称。
法律专家认为，如果法官拒绝DOJ的请求，波顿和他的出版商仍可能面临潜在的重大财务甚至刑事风险，因为他们将出版一本白宫声称包含机密信息的书。
作为对周二申请的回应，律师马克·扎伊德(Mark Zaid)，一位国家安全法专家，他曾在出版前的审查过程中代表多个个人，指出该诉讼在申请完全停止出版该书的禁令方面没有迈出更不寻常的一步。
扎伊德说:“这是一起违反合同的民事诉讼，博尔顿违反了他的保密协议，他自己的律师也承认了。”。“如果没有什么不寻常的事情发生，博尔顿应该准备好拿出他的支票本，也许永远也不会看到一分钱的利润。该诉讼还称，波顿已经发布了机密信息，可能会根据《间谍法》对他提起刑事诉讼。”
哥伦比亚大学骑士第一修正案研究所所长贾米尔·贾费尔说:“我认为博尔顿面临着真正的风险，因为他发表了一个通情达理的人可以称之为机密的材料。”。“据推测，他已经小心翼翼地删除了书中任何看似属于机密信息的内容，但我们知道，本届政府对其分类权力的看法非常宽泛。”
事实上，周一，唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)总统在与记者的交流中辩称，他的观点是“作为总统，与我的每一次谈话都是高度机密的”，这在那些之前参与过此类出版前评论的人当中引起了极大的怀疑。
“这不是任何行政部门负责任地说过的话，更不用说任何法院说过的话，”乔治敦大学的客座法学教授约书亚·格尔策(Joshua Geltzer)说，他曾担任国家安全委员会的反恐高级主任。"那种法律理论会让他们一笑置之。"
但是，格尔策指出，总统确实拥有广泛的分类权限。如果法官同意该书出版后包含机密材料，博尔顿可能会面临间谍法的潜在起诉——尽管这种情况很少发生。
然而，扎伊德认为，博尔顿最紧迫的法律危险可能是公开违反他的保密协议，正如DOJ在周二提交的文件中所指控的那样。
扎伊德说:“博尔顿至少在违反合同方面遇到了严重的麻烦，这对于政府来说简直是一个轻而易举的赢家。”。“波顿在出版前有义务获得政府的批准——缺乏批准违反了他的合同义务，这与书中是否有一个机密信息无关。”
政府此前至少在最近的一个案例中成功地没收了一名作者的现金，政府认为该作者发布了机密信息，比如前海豹突击队团队6成员马特·比索内特(Matt Bissonnette)，他出版了一本关于击毙奥萨马·本·拉登的“不容易日”的书。
虽然政府没有在该案件中追究刑事责任，但Bissonnette同意没收该书680万美元的版税，并为他所述的一些披露没有获得出版前批准而道歉。
“试图拿走未通过出版审查的书的收益的想法——对特朗普政府来说，这比‘事先限制’实际上阻止出版要低得多，”格尔策说。
DOJ aims to stop publication of book in new lawsuit against John Bolton
The Justice Departmentfiled a civil lawsuitTuesday against formernational securityadviserJohn Boltonseeking to prevent thepublication of his forthcomingtell-all memoir, "The Room Where It Happened,' asking a federal judgeto order himto complete the pre-publication review and "not disclose classified information without written authorization" in the forthcoming book
The 27-page filing also requests that a judge order Bolton to take any actions "within his power" to stop the publication of his book as it's currently drafted and "retrieve and dispose" of any copies that may have been sent out to third parties. The DOJ additionally requests for Bolton to be ordered not to further disclose information he wrote about in the book or release details "in any form or media... without first obtaining written permission."
"The United States is not seeking to censor any legitimate aspect of Defendant's manuscript; it merely seeks an order requiring Defendant to complete the prepublication review process and to take all steps necessary to ensure that only a manuscript that has been officially authorized through that process—and is thus free of classified information—is disseminated publicly," the filing says.
Additionally, the DOJ in the filing indicates it may seek to seize any profits Bolton derives from 'The Room Where it Happened,' asking the judge to order the accounting of "all monies, gains, profits, royalties, and other advantages" Bolton might receive from the book's publication.
Chuck Cooper, attorney for Bolton, told ABC News that they are reviewing the complaint and will respond in due course.
White House National Security Advisor John Bolton talks to reporters outside of the White House West Wing April 30, 2019 in Washington, DC.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this week, Bolton's lawyer Chuck Cooper said White House attempts to accuse Bolton of violating his non-disclosure agreement were merely an attempt to "censor Bolton."
"This last-minute allegation came after an intensive four-month review, after weeks of silence from the White House, and -- as Mr. Eisenberg admits in his letter -- after press reports alerted the White House that Mr. Bolton's book would be published on June 23," Cooper said. "This is a transparent attempt to use national security as a pretext to censor Mr. Bolton, in violation of his constitutional right to speak on matters of the utmost public import."
The filing Tuesday offers insight into the process behind the pre-publication review, acknowledging that the National Security Council's senior director for records Ellen Knight had completed her review of the book and "was of the judgment that the manuscript draft did not contain classified information."
The next person to take up the review was a deputy legal adviser for the NSC Michael Ellis, who according to the filing "was concerned that the manuscript still appeared to contain classified information, in part because the same administration that the author served is still in office and that the manuscript described sensitive information about ongoing foreign policy issues."
The DOJ alleges in the filing that in its current form, the manuscript "contains certain passages, some up to several paragraphs in length—that contain classified national security information."
"In fact, the NSC has determined that information in the manuscript is classified at the Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret levels," the filing says.
In the event the judge rejects the request from the DOJ, both Bolton and his publisher could still face potentially significant financial and even criminal jeopardy, legal experts argue, by moving forward in publishing a book that the White House claims contains classified information.
Reacting to the filing Tuesday, attorney Mark Zaid, an expert in national security law who has previously represented multiple individuals through the pre-publication review process, noted the suit stops short of what would have been a more extraordinary step in filing for an injunction to halt publication of the book altogether.
"This is a routine civil action for breach of contract for (Bolton) violating his non-disclosure agreement, which his own lawyer has admitted he did," Zaid said. "Absent something extraordinary happening, Bolton should be prepared to take out his check book and may never see a dime in profit. The lawsuit also asserts Bolton has released classified information which potentially subjects him to criminal prosecution under the Espionage Act."
"I think that Bolton faces real risk to the extent he publishes material that a reasonable person could describe as classified," said Jameel Jaffer, the director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. "Presumably, he has taken care to scrub the book of anything that could plausibly be described as classified information, but we have that this administration that takes extraordinarily broad view of its classification power."
On Monday, in fact, President Donald Trump, in an exchange with reporters, argued his view that "every conversation with me as president highly classified," garnering significant skepticism among those who have previously been involved with such pre-publication reviews.
"That is not something that any Executive Branch has responsibly said let alone any court has ever said," said Joshua Geltzer, a visiting law professor at Georgetown who previously served as the NSC's senior director for counterterrorism. "That legal theory would get them laughed out of court."
But, Geltzer noted that it's true the president does have broad classification authorities. And in the event that a judge were to agree that the book contained classified material after its publication, Bolton could face potential prosecution under the Espionage Act -- though such cases are rare.
However, Bolton's most imminent legal danger, according to Zaid, could be the open violation of his non-disclosure agreement as alleged by DOJ in the Tuesday filing.
"Bolton is in serious trouble with at least a breach of contract, which is literally a hands-down winner for the government," Zaid said. "Bolton has an obligation before publication to receive approval from the government -- a lack of approval breaches his contractual obligation and that has nothing to do with whether or not there's one word of classified information in the book."
The government has previously been successful in at least one recent instance in seizing a cash forfeiture from an author it deemed published classified information, in the case of former SEAL Team 6 member Matt Bissonnette who published the book "No Easy Day" about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
While the government did not pursue criminal charges in that case, Bissonnette agreed to forfeit $6.8 million in royalties from the book and apologized for not receiving pre-publication approval for some of the disclosures he recounted.
"The idea of trying to take the proceeds of the book that has not gone through publication review -- that's a lower bar for the Trump Administration to meet than 'prior restraint' actually blocking publication," Geltzer said.
