Former Chief of Staff to John Bolton: Withdraw Your Book Immediately

Fleitz, who served as Bolton’s chief of staff twice, said it was “crushing” to read weekend press reports that Bolton planned to publish a book on his time in the Trump White House. Those reports included a bombshell New York Times report on Sunday that alleged Bolton’s leaked manuscript draft said Trump told Bolton he wanted to withhold aid from Ukraine until its government agreed to investigate his political rivals.

Fleitz wrote in a Fox News op-ed:

The book reportedly will be published in March 2020. Given the importance of protecting a president’s confidential discussions with his senior advisers, I strongly disagree with Bolton’s decision to release the book before the November presidential election and call on him to withdraw it from the publisher immediately.

Fleitz argued that Bolton was an “exceptional national security expert and a man of great integrity,” and he was sorry when the relationship between Bolton and Trump broke down.

However, he said, “Presidents must be able to candidly consult with their advisers without worrying they will leak these discussions to the press or obtain high-dollar book contracts to publish them.”

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Fleitz said he takes Bolton and his staff’s word that they did not leak the manuscript draft to the Times. However, he added they were still responsible for the leak, since they handed the manuscript draft to the National Security Council for review on December 30, and must have realized how likely it was to leak from there.

“It also is inexplicable how such a sensitive manuscript could be sent to the NSC in the middle of the impeachment process. Under such circumstances, a leak of the manuscript was all but certain,” Fleitz wrote.

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Fleitz cited the case of former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who stepped down in June 2011 but withheld from publishing a book damaging to then-Vice President Joe Biden until after his second term, in January 2014.

“Gates established a principled precedent on how senior advisers to presidents should write about their experiences. Given Ambassador Bolton’s long and distinguished record of government service, I believe it is vital that he follow this precedent,” Fleitz wrote.