© 2026 ABC News

Bolton's attorney said in a statement to ABC News they \"welcome\" the decision overall but \"respectfully take issue, however, with the Court's preliminary conclusion at this early stage of the case that Ambassador Bolton did not comply fully with his contractual prepublication obligation to the Government, and the case will now proceed to development of the full record on that issue.\"

It's likely not the end of Bolton's legal troubles.

The Justice Department at a minimum is expected to seek to seize the profits from his book -- which already came with a reported $2 million deal -- and potentially pursue criminal charges under the Espionage Act for divulging classified information, according to a person familiar with the matter.

\"PHOTO:
Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: Former National Security adviser John Bolton speaks on stage during a public discussion at Duke University in Durham, N.C., Feb. 17, 2020.
>

Bolton, meanwhile, has repeatedly disputed that his book contains any classified information following multiple revisions over the course of a months-long review by the National Security Council.

The NSC official tasked with prepublication review, Ellen Knight, by April 27, 2020, \"had completed her review and was of the judgment that the manuscript draft did not contain classified information,\" according to the court complaint.

It was months later after further review by Michael Ellis, another NSC official, that Bolton was informed the council concluded there was additional classified information that needed to be redacted from his book, delivering a letter to him only last Tuesday identifying six passages.

The government says Bolton acted unlawfully by going ahead with publication before the review had been completed. Bolton says he acted in reliance on Knight's conclusion that any classified information had been removed.

\"PHOTO:
Abaca Press/Sipa USA via AP
PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks as National security advisor John Bolton listens during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on in Washington, May 22, 2018.
>

A spokesperson for Simon & Schuster in a statement called the government's filing \"a frivolous, politically motivated exercise in futility.\"

\"Hundreds of thousands of copies of John Bolton's 'The Room Where it Happened' have already been distributed around the country and the world. The injunction as requested by the government would accomplish nothing,\" a statement from last week reads.

Notably, several excerpts of the book have already made their way online, which Lamberth acknowledged, and the book is a number one seller on Amazon.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News' Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz, Bolton predicted Trump's response to the book would be \"volcanic.\"

\"It's typical of the Trump administration that when faced with criticism, they don't deal with the substance of the criticism, they attack the person, which I fully expect and doesn't surprise me,\" he said.

President Trump has called Bolton a \"wacko\" and \"liar,\" among other names, leading up to the book's official release on Tuesday, June 23, in which Bolton calls the president \"stunningly uninformed.\"

Raddatz directly asked Bolton in the interview if he feared being prosecuted.

\"I feel very confident after going through four months of page by page, line by line prepublication review, that there's no classified information in the book,\" Bolton said.

Bolton has called Trump's attacks on him \"unbecoming of the office of president.\"

\"The president isn't worried about foreign governments reading this book,\" Bolton said. \"He's worried about the American people reading this book.\"

In another interview with ABC News' Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on Monday, Bolton declined to say if he would testify now if subpoenaed by Congress and instead turned attention to November's presidential election.

\"The primary way we rein presidents in is not through impeachment,\" Bolton argued. \"It's through elections and presidential behavior can be reckless, reprehensible, dangerous.\"

ABC News' Alexander Mallin, Katherine Faulders and Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.

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