Trump sues to block Bolton book

[Jolly]

Wrong, Brit Boy.

Trump's contention is that all conversations that take place in the Whitehouse between a President and his advisors about national security matters are classified.

[jon-nyc]

Especially the ones that make him look bad.

[Catseye3]

And applying "national security matters" is about as loosy-goosey as you can get.

I have a very vague recollection that the Reagan Administration blocked the publication of a book, I think successfully. So this isn't the first occurrence.

[Jolly]

@jon-nyc said in Trump sues to block Bolton book:

Especially the ones that make him look bad.

Doesn't matter, Biden fanboi.....

[89th]

@jon-nyc said in Trump sues to block Bolton book:

Especially the ones that make him look bad.

Those are the assified conversations.

[bachophile]

Any attempt to censor inevitably ends up as a great promo, more people will rush to buy the book because the attempt to squelch info will serve as proof (whether justified or not) of the veracity of the content.

Same for trumps nieces’ book

I find it strange how people never realize that. Ignore something, chances are others will also. Throw the spotlight on it, and everyone will rush to read it.

Anyway, I doubt trump will succeed. No court would uphold that unless there really are state secrets in the book, and Bolton is much too smart, and frankly too patriotic, to endanger national security by divulging secrets.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Jolly said in Trump sues to block Bolton book:

Wrong, Brit Boy.

Trump's contention is that all conversations that take place in the Whitehouse between a President and his advisors about national security matters are classified.

And Margaret Thatcher's contention was that Peter Wright signed the Official Secrets Act preventing him from publishing his book, which probably carries quite a lot more weight from a legal perspective than Trump's rather vague contention.

Obviously, the person who lectured me so patronisingly about free speech is long gone, so I win the argument by default.

Not that I hold a grudge, or anything

[Larry]

Let's see...

1. Everyone knows that Bolton is a Hawk who wants the US to be involved in as many wars as possible.

2. The Left - Mustache man bad. They hate mustache man.

3. Everyone including Bolton knows that Trump wants us out of the war business.

4. The Left, who bitched about every war we were in, suddenly decides we should be in wars. Orange man bad. They hate Orange man.

5. Bolton literally begs to be hired for the job. He wants to get us involved in another war. The Left - Mustache man good because he will go against Orange man, and Orange man bad.

6. Bolton tries to get the US involved in another war. Trump says no Bolton turns on Trump. The Left - goody goody, Mustache man makes trouble for Orange man, and Orange man bad.

7. Trump fires Bolton. Bolton not happy. The Left - we like Mustache man because we hate Orange man. Orange man bad.

8. Bolton gets on TV and trashes Trump. The Left - Yay!! We like Mustache man because we hate Orange man. Orange man bad.

9. Despite the fact that Bolton signed a contract agreeing that anything said in meetings was classified and he could not reveal any of it, Bolton writes a book specifically for the purpose of revealing what was said in the classified meetings.
   A. Bolton is butt hurt because of his enormous ego.
   B. Bolton is trying to cash in.

The Left - we LOVE Bolton because he's going to do in Orange man. Never mind that he's revealing classified information, what's important is we get to add another smear campaign to our long list of smear campaigns because.... Orange man bad.

Riiight.....

[Doctor Phibes]

I think Bolton is pretty dreadful, I was very glad that Trump fired him.

Whether he's releasing classified information is unknown at this point. He says no, POTUS says yes. I see no particular reason to believe either of them. Two blokes with monumental egos.

[Copper]

Why bother?

Is there even one person in the entire country who hasn't made up their mind how they will vote this year?

There isn't really much need to worry about it.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Copper said in Trump sues to block Bolton book:

Why bother?

Is there even one person in the entire country who hasn't made up their mind how they will vote this year?

There isn't really much need to worry about it.

"What difference at this point does it make?"

[Larry]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Trump sues to block Bolton book:

I think Bolton is pretty dreadful, I was very glad that Trump fired him.

Whether he's releasing classified information is unknown at this point. He says no, POTUS says yes. I see no particular reason to believe either of them. Two blokes with monumental egos.

One of them is telling the truth, because it is an either/or issue. There isnt a third possibility. And since the president is the one who decides if it's classified or not, not Bolton, and since Trump says it IS classified, then it's classified.

[Doctor Phibes]

I think it's up to the courts to decide who is telling the truth, not Donald Trump. Because if it was up to Donald Trump to decide, clearly he would never do anything other than tell the absolute truth. Except, of course, where he completely contradicted himself. Not that he would ever do that.

[Catseye3]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Trump sues to block Bolton book:

I think it's up to the courts to decide who is telling the truth, not Donald Trump.

But how would that work? Courts would not have the knowledge they'd need to determine that. Only the spook agencies can do that, surely? And even if the courts were in the know, any hearing or trial would have to be away from the public.

I don't see that happening.

[Doctor Phibes]

Well, if he's suing to prevent the book being published, who is going to make the call?

[Catseye3]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Trump sues to block Bolton book:

Well, if he's suing to prevent the book being published, who is going to make the call?

On a quick search, all I find is: "On Tuesday, the Trump administration asked a federal judge to block publication of John Bolton’s The Room Where It Happened, the former national security adviser’s twice-delayed kiss-and-tell memoir of life in the Trump White House."

What criterion the judge would need to make his decision, I don't know.

[Larry]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Trump sues to block Bolton book:

I think it's up to the courts to decide who is telling the truth, not Donald Trump. Because if it was up to Donald Trump to decide, clearly he would never do anything other than tell the absolute truth. Except, of course, where he completely contradicted himself. Not that he would ever do that.

You bring an apple into the room and put it on the table. You tell everyone in the room it's your apple and not to take it. Everyone in the room sees you bring the apple, and hears you say don't take it. I take your apple. You ask for it back, and I say no.

Do we need to go to court to decide which one of us owns the apple?

It's Trumps apple.

[Mik]

https://theconversation.com/what-is-classified-information-and-who-gets-to-decide-77832

I would have to agree that things said in cabinet level meetings would by the standard in this article be at the very least 'for official use only' which his book is clearly not.

[xenon]

Doesn't this all depend on what Bolton actually has to say?

Classified info:

We were considering planning country X with Y force on such and such date.

Probably not classified info:

We were considering a foreign military operation. Such and such orange person thought the only thing to consider would be some factor. He didn't even take into account blah, blah, blah. My principles were this, other other person's were that.

You can relay a story about a confidential matter, without saying what the confidential matter was. Now this all can get grey pretty fast, but you get my point.

[Horace]

I'm sure he changed names. Pladimir Vutin, Im jong Keel, etc.