New York Times: “The Justice Department has closed its criminal investigation into whether a disparaging memoir by President Donald J. Trump’s national security adviser John R. Bolton illegally disclosed classified information and dropped its lawsuit aimed at recouping profits from the book, according to Mr. Bolton and a court filing. The agreement ends an effort that began under the Trump administration to silence Mr. Bolton and sue him over the book’s profits. Ending both the inquiry and the lawsuit is a clear rebuke by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland of the Trump Justice Department’s tactics in the matter. ‘We argued from the outset that neither action was justifiable because they were initiated only as a result of President Trump’s politically motivated order to prevent publication of the ambassador’s book before the 2020 election,’ said Mr. Bolton’s lawyer, Charles J. Cooper. By ending the legal action, Mr. Cooper said, ‘the Department of Justice has tacitly acknowledged that President Trump and his White House officials acted illegitimately.'”

“A settlement by the Justice Department is likely to shield Trump administration officials from being forced to answer questions under oath about their time in office. A federal judge had given Mr. Cooper approval to begin deposing those officials, but a settlement would end that litigation. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment. The legal action against Mr. Bolton began last year after Mr. Trump publicly and privately pressured White House aides and Justice Department officials to use their powers to stop Mr. Bolton from publishing his book about his time working in Mr. Trump’s White House, ‘The Room Where It Happened.’ In June 2020, the Justice Department sued Mr. Bolton seeking to stop the publication of the memoir and to recoup profits he made from it; a judge ruled that the department could continue to seek the profits but could not stop its publication. It was revealed last September that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation into whether Mr. Bolton had unlawfully disclosed classified information in the book – an inquiry that started after the Trump administration failed to halt its publication. As part of the investigation, the department issued a grand jury subpoena to the book’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, for communications records about the memoir.”