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Bolton revelations about Trump ignite Washington 3:08
(CNN) - Judge Royce Lamberth on Saturday denied the government's attempt by President Donald Trump to block the release of John Bolton's book.
Judge Royce Lamberth of the Wasington District Court did not make a decision at Friday's nearly two-hour hearing and said he would wait to review more details from the Justice Department before deciding.
How does Bolton's book influence elections? 2:15Bolton details in a new book about his assignment as National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump a series of disturbing and shocking claims: He alleges that Trump requested Chinese help to win the 2020 elections, that the president argued that Venezuela is part of the United States. The US, who casually offered to intervene in the criminal justice system for foreign leaders, and who was mocked by his own senior officials behind his back.
Bolton, who declined to testify before Trump's impeachment, choosing instead to save his revelations for the book that has already jumped to Amazon's best-seller list, argues that lawmakers should have expanded impeachment investigations. to examine a number of ways Trump attempted to break the law.
Ahead of its June 23 release, CNN obtained a copy of the book, which the White House is furiously fighting to stop. Here are some of those revelations:
Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping for help to be re-elected
Bolton described a conversation between the two leaders at the June 20, 2019 G20 meeting in Osaka, Japan, where Trump told Xi that farmers in the Midwest would be key to his reelection in November 2020. Trump urged Xi to boost his political good luck by buying American agricultural products, tied to a promise to waive some tariffs on China in return. Trump "emphasized the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soy and wheat in the election result," Bolton wrote.
Bolton also says that it is difficult for him to think of a single decision that Trump made during his White House term "that was not driven by re-election calculations."
READ : Trump asked the president of China to help him win the 2020 elections, Bolton says in his new book
Trump had no problem with China's concentration camps
Bolton describes several instances in which Trump debates China-related issues after talks with Xi, especially in the concentration camps that Beijing was using to imprison and "re-educate" Muslim Uighurs. Bolton writes that, according to the American interpreter in the room, during a conversation between Xi and Trump at the G-20 meeting in June 2019, Trump said that Xi should continue with the construction of the camps, as Trump thought it was " exactly what was right to do. ”
Bolton adds that Trump did not want to sanction China for its crackdown on the Muslim minority due to ongoing trade negotiations. “Religious repression in China was also not on Trump's agenda; Whether it was the Catholic Church or Falun Gong, it was ignored, ”Bolton writes.
Pompeo, famous for his loyalty to the President, may have spoken ill of him
Bolton describes a meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un in which the North Korean despot attributed the troubled relations between his country and the United States to the actions of previous administrations. Emphasizing the meetings he and Trump had held, Kim told the president that they could dispel mistrust and quickly work toward a nuclear deal. After Trump told Kim he would seek Senate ratification of any deal with North Korea, Bolton says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo passed him a notepad that scribbled the message, "He is so full of shit. "
"I agreed," Bolton writes, and then he notes that Kim promised there would be no more nuclear tests. The State Department has not responded to CNN's request for comment on Pompeo's alleged note.
Trump offered to help Turkey's president avoid a Justice Department investigation
Bolton writes that, in December 2018, Trump offered to help Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a Justice Department investigation into a Turkish bank with ties to Erdogan, suspected of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. When the Turkish leader presented Trump with a memo from the law firm representing Halkbank, Trump leafed through it, then stated that he believed the bank was totally innocent of violating U.S. sanctions related to Iran.
Trump told Erdogan that he would "take charge" and explained that the Southern District prosecutors "were not his people, but Obama's people," and that the problem would be solved when they were replaced by his people.
Bolton points out that "this was all nonsense" because Justice Department prosecutors were career employees who would have taken the same path with the Halkbank investigation, regardless of who the president was.
