Bolton reportedly received a formal threat from White House to prevent book publication

John Bolton.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The White House is reportedly trying to take the publication of former National Security Adviser John Bolton's forthcoming book into its own hands.

CNN's Jake Tapper reported Wednesday that sources familiar with the matter said the White House issued a "formal threat" in a letter to Bolton. Neither Bolton or his publisher Simon & Schuster have responded to a request for comment, and the White House had no comment on Tapper's report. But CBS obtained a letter the White House sent to Bolton's last week before leaks were made public warning him that the manuscript for The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir contained "significant amounts of classified information" and subsequently was prevented from being published under federal law.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.