text: Memoir and legal concerns On June 16, 2020, the Trump Justice Department attempted to block publication of Bolton's memoir, The Room Where It Happened, seeking to confiscate Bolton's $2 million advance for breach of contract, asserting he had not completed the prepublication security review as he had agreed to receive his security clearance. Bolton had submitted the book for security review in December 2019, and after months of discussions, was told on April 27 by Ellen Knight—the National Security Council's senior director for prepublication review—that no other classification issues remained. However, the White House did not provide Bolton written notice that he could proceed with publication, and in May another NSC official was asked to further review the manuscript. On June 17, the Justice Department asked a federal judge to issue an injunction to block publication of the book, which had already been printed, bound and shipped to distribution warehouses for its official release the following week. By that day, media outlets had acquired copies of the book and begun publishing articles about its contents.
  In its brief filed with the court, the Justice Department provided six examples of what it asserted were classified items that remained in the book. Trump had previously asserted that any conversation with him is "highly classified." During a hearing on June 19, federal judge Royce Lamberth castigated Bolton for proceeding to publish his book without formal clearance, but ruled that publication of the book could proceed.
  Bolton's attorney asserted that the White House was slow-walking the review process to prevent the book, which contained extensive harsh criticism of Trump, from being released during the 2020 election campaign. According to reporting, Trump claimed that the book contained "highly classified" information but also characterized the book as "pure fiction."
  On June 21, a pirated copy of the book appeared online. The book was released on June 23. Later that summer, the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into whether the book revealed classified information, empaneling a grand jury that subpoenaed the publisher's communications records.