Now that major media have published full coverage of John Bolton’s forthcoming book THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED, including reviews and an authorized excerpt, the government has filed an additional motion on top of their Tuesday breach of contract suit asking for a temporary injunction blocking release of the book. They ask for a hearing “at the Court’s earliest convenience on Friday, June 19, 2020.” The government insists that, “Disclosure of the manuscript will damage the national security of the United States.” They claim the book “contains instances of information that, if disclosed, reasonably could be expected to cause serious […]
Legal
DOJ Sues Bolton for “Publishing A Book Containing Classified Information” Without Approval
Donald Trump’s bluster about former National Security Adviser John Bolton facing criminal liability notwithstanding, on Tuesday the Department of Justice filed a civil suit against Bolton on three counts of breach of contract and fiduciary duty. They say he is publishing his book with Simon & Schuster THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED on June 23 without having received the written clearance and approval from the government required under agreements he signed when serving in the administration. Notably, the government is not suing S&S, though one of the prayers for relief is to “bind” those “who are in active concert or […]
Internet Archive Will Suspend Massive Infringement Two Weeks Early, But Continues to Misrepresent
Following the filing of a lawsuit by four major publishers at the beginning of June over the Internet Archive’s “willful mass copyright infringement,” the IA will at least “close” their self-proclaimed National Emergency Library two weeks earlier than originally announced, on June 16. “We moved up our schedule because, last Monday, four commercial publishers chose to sue Internet Archive,” which is widely considered to have no viable legal defense for the uncontrolled digital lending they initiated in late March. They will try to defend their self-invented practice of controlled digital lending — the core principles of which they violated at […]
Briefs
Legal Agents Beth Phelan and Kelly Van Sant and author Isabel Sterling received cease & desist letters from an attorney representing agent Dawn Frederick at Red Sofa Literary after speaking out about Frederick’s response to protestors in St. Paul. On May 28, Frederick posted on Twitter that she had called the police about an incident near her home (the tweet has since been deleted). Subsequently, three agents, including Van Sant resigned from Red Sofa. Phelan, Van Sant, and Sterling wrote in an open letter that Frederick “demanded that we delete our respective posts regarding Dawn’s actions and further, publish retractions […]
Bolton’s Lawyer Says White House Is Trying to “Use National Security as a Pretext to Censor” Him
John Bolton’s book THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED has been shipped to warehouses and distribution centers in advance of its June 23 publication date. But deputy White House counsel John Eisenberg claims “the current draft still contains classified material” and says the National Security Council will provide a redacted copy of the manuscript on or before June 19. Bolton’s attorney Charles Cooper writes in the WSJ about the extensive process of review and revision that Bolton went through with Ellen Knight, the NSC’s senior director for prepublication review of materials. By Cooper’s account, on April 27, Knight confirmed to Bolton […]
Briefs
People Tara Gilbert has joined the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, associate agent. She was previously associate agent at Corvisiero Literary Agency. Amy Giuffrida has also joined as associate agent. She was previously literary agent apprentice at Corvisiero. At Astra Publishing House, Lisa Taylor has joined as production manager (she was at Lonely Planet Kids), and Alisa Trager moves over from Boyds Mills & Kane to serve as managing editor for Astra, working across all group imprints. Founder and publisher of Fig Tree Juliet Annan will leave the imprint at the end of October, as she pursues an MA in English […]