Secretary of State Mike Pompeo late Thursday declared that former White House National Security Adviser John R. Bolton is “spreading a number of lies” in his new book and said the former trusted policy adviser is a “traitor.”
In the yet-to-be-released White House tell-all, Mr. Bolton makes several eye-popping claims against President Trump, including a time when Mr. Trump stressed the electoral importance of trade policy to Chinese President Xi Jinping and that Mr. Trump praised Mr. Xi’s plan to build “concentration camps” in Xinjiang for China’s Uighur minority population.
“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,” Mr. Pompeo said in a statement released late Thursday.
“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,” he continued in the statement, titled “I Was In The Room Too.” Mr. Bolton’s book is titled, “The Room Where It Happened.”
The Trump administration has lodged a fiery response to the reported excerpts and has sought to discredit the allegations made in the book.
The Justice Department is also seeking a federal court to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent publication of classified information it says is contained in the forthcoming book, which is expected to be released on Tuesday.
The book also alleges, according to released excerpts, that the president requested military options for Venezuela and suggested the South American country may be part of the U.S., and asked his advisers ahead of a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin if Finland was part of Russia or if it was a “kind of satellite of Russia.”
“To our friends around the world,” Mr. Pompeo wrote, “you know that President Trump’s America is a force for good in the world.”
• Lauren Toms can be reached at lmeier@washingtontimes.com.
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