A letter dated January 23, 2020 from the White House to the attorney for former Trump national security advisor Ambassador John Bolton informed him that Bolton’s book should not be published because it contains “significant amounts of classified information”, including top secret information. The letter was sent several days before the New York Times anonymously sourced, second hand report on Bolton’s manuscript published Sunday night.

The letter is signed by Ellen J. Knight, Senior Director for Records, Access and Information Security Management for the National Security Council. Bolton had submitted the manuscript to the NSC for review on December 30,2019, according to his attorney Charles Cooper.

The timing adds more mystery to the machinations behind the moves to get Bolton to testify in the ongoing Senate impeachment trial of President Trump.

Copy of the letter:

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Video report by CBS New reporter Weijia Jiang.

JUST IN: White House attempts to block publication of John Bolton's forthcoming book, alleging that manuscript "appears to contain significant amounts of classified information," @weijia reports; the WH has had Bolton's manuscript since Dec. 30 https://t.co/8eDXJbxaT6 pic.twitter.com/fl8s3i2KQ1 — CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) January 29, 2020

The NSC letter invites Bolton to work with them to revise the manuscript to enable publication.

UPDATE: Cooper’s letter of December 30 to Knight claimed the Bolton manuscript contains no classified information.