President Donald Trump on Wednesday in an interview criticized his former National Security Advisor John Bolton after information from his book criticizing the president leaked to the press.
Trump said that Bolton was breaking the law by leaking classified information about the president in his book In the Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, scheduled for publication on June 23.
“He broke the law, he was a washed-up guy,” Trump said. “I gave him a chance, he couldn’t get senate confirmed, so I gave him a non-senate- confirmed position where I could just put him there, to see how he worked. I wasn’t very enamored.”
The president commented about Bolton in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Information from Bolton’s book was published by the New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
Trump disputed Bolton’s accusations that he was cozying up to world dictators in China and Russia.
“Nobody’s been as tough on Russia and China as I have,” Trump said.
Trump also reminded Hannity’s audience that Bolton was a long-time advocate for the Iraq war.
“He was one of the big guns … that didn’t work out too well,” Trump said, recalling that while Bolton was in his administration, he still defended the decision to go to war in Iraq.
The Justice Department on Tuesday filed a lawsuit to stop Bolton from publishing his tell-all book.
“He broke the law, very simple, as much as it’s going to be broken this is highly classified,” Trump said. “And he did not have approval, and that’s coming out very loud and very strong.”
The Justice Department will reportedly seek a temporary restraining order to stop Bolton from releasing the book on June 23.
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