Lawyer: US Drops Lawsuit, Grand Jury Probe Over Bolton Book

The Justice Department has abandoned its lawsuit against John Bolton, former President Donald Trump's short-term national security adviser, over his book that officials argued disclosed classified information, according to court documents and Bolton's representatives. Prosecutors also dropped a grand jury investigation over the book's publication, Bolton's lawyer said Wednesday. 

The Trump administration sued last year to block the release of Bolton's book, "The Room Where It Happened," and to recover copies of the book that had already been distributed. The book, released in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, offered a behind-the-scenes and unflattering account of Trump's foreign policy dealings. It described how Trump asked China's President Xi Jinping to help the American's reelection prospects and how Trump pressured his Ukraine counterpart for politically charged investigations. Justice Department lawyers who sued over the book had insisted that the manuscript contained classified information that could damage national security and that Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, had failed to complete a prepublication review process designed to prevent the disclosure of government secrets.   On Wednesday, the Biden administration filed a document in federal court dismissing the suit, formally bringing the yearlong court fight to an end.