The book penned by former National Security Adviser John Bolton doesnt include any classified information about Ukraine, Boltons lawyer said in a response to the National Security Council.
Ellen Knight, the senior director for records, access, and information security management for the White House National Security Council, had told Boltons lawyer, Charles Cooper, that “based on our preliminary review, the manuscript appears to contain significant amounts of classified information.”
“It also appears that some of this classified information is at the TOP SECRET level, which is defined by Executive Order 13526 as information that reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave harm to the national security of the United States if disclosed without authorization,” Knight wrote in the Jan. 23 letter, which was made public on Jan. 29.
In a Jan. 24 response made public on Jan. 30, Cooper told Knight that Bolton might be called to testify in the Senate impeachment trial.
“Although no one yet knows whether the Senate will subpoena him to testify, he is preparing for that possibility,” Cooper wrote. “If he is called to testify, it seems certain that he will be asked questions that will elicit much of the information contained in the chapter of his manuscript dealing with his involvement in matters relating to Ukraine.”
“We do not believe that any of that information could reasonably be considered classified.”
Boltons manuscript was submitted to the National Security Council for pre-publication review so White House lawyers could look it over for portions containing classified information. Details of the book leaked to media outlets. Bolton has denied leaking the details, as did the council.
Cooper said in a statement to news outlets that the council still hasnt gotten back to him about specifics on the review. “I have received no response whatever to my urgent request foRead More – Source
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