Bestselling author and former Trump Administration National Security Advisor John Bolton learned this week that the Department of Justice will end legal proceedings brought against him while President Trump was still in office last year.
The news came in a brief, two-line stipulation filed on June 16, in which federal judge Royce Lamberth dismissed the DOJ case against Bolton with prejudice and ordered each side to pay its own fees and costs.
The decision means Bolton gets to keep the seven-figure financial proceeds earned from his memoir, The Room Where It Happened. Published by Simon & Schuster, The Room Where It Happened has sold about 679,000 print copies, according to NPD BookScan.
“Last year, DOJ officials sued to block publication of Bolton’s memoir, alleging that it contained classified information that jeopardized national security and that it ran afoul of Bolton’s nondisclosure agreements, which explicitly required the author to await a written clearance from government reviewers before publishing his book,” explains Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.
Bolton’s Lawyer, Charles Cooper, said the decision to end the litigation against his client was a complete vindication—and that it suggested wrongdoing by the Trump DOJ. “By ending these proceedings, the Department of Justice has tacitly acknowledged that President Trump and his White House officials acted illegitimately,” Cooper said in a statement.