DOJ drops civil lawsuit against former Trump national security adviser John Bolton

The DOJ on Wednesday moved to drop its civil lawsuit targeting former national security adviser John Bolton over his 2020 memoir about Donald Trump's presidency.

The Justice Department on Wednesday moved to drop its civil lawsuit targeting former national security adviser John Bolton over the publication of his 2020 memoir "The Room Where It Happened," halting an effort brought during the Trump administration that had sought to seize all proceeds Bolton received from the book. The short filing, made Wednesday, only stated that "the parties stipulate to dismissal of this action, with prejudice." "We are very pleased that the Department of Justice has dismissed with prejudice its civil lawsuit against Ambassador Bolton and has terminated grand jury proceedings," Charles Cooper, an attorney for Bolton, said in a statement. "We argued from the outset that neither action was justifiable, because they were initiated only as a result of President Trump's politically motivated order to prevent publication of the Ambassador's book before the 2020 election." A separate criminal probe into whether Bolton illegally mishandled classified information by publishing the book has also been dropped, Cooper added in his statement. Last fall, grand jury subpoenas were sent to Bolton's publisher and his literary agent demanding their communications with Bolton.