1. For me (not a lawyer, but someone who served in government and signed an SF-312 and SF-4414, and have had many friends and associates go through the clearance process for post-employment articles and books): The passage in the legal complaint that jumped out was paragraph 46:
2. "On or around April 27, 2000, Ms. Knight had completed her review and was of the judgment that the manuscript draft did not contain classified information."
Ms. Knight is Ellen Knight, the career employee who had spent four months working painstakingly with Bolton...
Ms. Knight is Ellen Knight, the career employee who had spent four months working painstakingly with Bolton...
3. ...to remove or rewrite countless passages to ensure no classified information was even inadvertently revealed in the book. The process sounds as if it was even more painstaking than usual. I'll also say, knowing Bolton, that whatever criticisms one might have of him...
4. ...that he's not the type to be careless or cavalier about classified information. He's also been through this before, having written a book after leaving the Bush Administration. So what happened? Sounds like the review was finished. And it was finished.
5. Until Michael Ellis stepped in. Ellis, a former Devin Nunes staffer who was then involved in some questionable business at the White House counsel's office, had just moved to the NSC. Ellis inserted himself in the process and overrode Knight to try to hold up publication.
6. It would be good to discover in sworn depositions and testimony what basis Ellis had for his decisions, and if he was instructed by Trump or O'Brien or Meadows to try to stop publication. But I assume the court will just deny the government's motion and throw the case out.
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2020, not 2000
