Former Solicitor General Neal Katyal explained that President Donald Trump has no real hope of stopping John Bolton's book from being spread far and wide and his efforts seem "desperate and incompetent."
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace cited Peter Baker's latest story citing excerpts of Bolton's book and explained that in the George W. Bush White House, where she worked, the revelations would be referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.
"Is the corruption criminal?" she asked.
"It very well could be," said Katyal. "I think that that's exactly the right question. A lot of people are focusing on Bolton and his motivation and stuff. the story here is not Bolton. The story is Donald Trump and the fact that his top aide, his former national security adviser, is documenting a pattern of definitely impeachable and indeed criminal conduct here. And that is just an astounding thing. And the irony for Bolton is that he writes this book, which is all about how the president is abusing his national security powers in aid of his personal political goals. And now Bolton faces a lawsuit for exactly that. The same course of conduct, in which the president has politicized the pre-classification review process to try to stop publication of the book. It's obviously not working. Peter's already got a copy of it. But has done that in and displaced the career officials who do that with politicians who have tried to hold up the book and now they have gone to court to try to stop him. it won't work, but it shows a desperate and frankly incompetent administrative move."
Baker went on to explain that Trump is incorrect when he says that Bolton's book wasn't cleared. The top person who was in charge of the classification project did have him remove several pieces in the book, and then it was confirmed as approved. The Justice Department lawsuit against Bolton even references that the process was completed.
See the full conversation below:
