Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday evening hit back at former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s depictions of the Trump administration’s inner workings in his new memoir with a scathing statement.
“I’ve not read the book, but from the excerpts I’ve seen published, John Bolton is spreading a number of lies, fully-spun half-truths, and outright falsehoods,” Pompeo said. “It is both sad and dangerous that John Bolton’s final public role is that of a traitor who damaged America by violating his sacred trust with its people.”
Pompeo joins President Trump and other White House officials in portraying Bolton as a liar ahead of the June 23 publication of his book, The Room Where It Happened. The book contains a series of damning allegations about the Trump administration, including that the president sought China’s help in securing victory in the 2020 election and routinely offered favors to dictators. The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit to stop the book’s distribution.
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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin echoed Pompeo in a statement released Thursday: “John Bolton has put self-promotion ahead of the truth and of the interests of his country.”
Trump went even further in a series of Twitter tirades, calling Bolton a a “wacko” and a “liar” who is just trying to make him “look bad.”
Bolton, known for taking detailed notes during his tenure as national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019, has faced criticism for writing a book about incompetence within the Trump administration but refusing to testify before the House during impeachment proceedings.
News of his book first broke in January 2020, but prepublication review by the federal government, meant to redact classified information, delayed its release for months. Lawyers for the White House have said Bolton failed to complete the process, an allegation Bolton’s attorneys and his publisher denied.
