CNN’s Stelter: John Bolton Book Goes on Pre-Order at Amazon after NYT Story

CNN media reporter Brian Stelter tweeted Sunday evening that former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s new memoir went on pre-order sale at Amazon.com right after the New York Times published an article suggesting it would undermine President Donald Trump’s defense against impeachment and removal.

The Times story claimed that drafts of Bolton’s book that had been submitted to the National Security Council (NSC) for review reported that “President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens.”

The Times did not quote the manuscript itself, but rather people who claimed to have seen it.

The “investigations” Trump allegedly wanted are unclear; the Times article later mentions that Trump wanted Ukraine to provide “materials they had about the Russia investigation that related to Mr. Biden and supporters of Mrs. Clinton in Ukraine.”

Bolton’s lawyer released a statement Sunday evening in which said that the NSC’s “prepublication review process has been corrupted.” He did not confirm or deny the Times‘ reporting of the contents of Bolton’s book.

Breitbart News reported that Army Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, a lead NSC ethics lawyer and the brother of impeachment witness Lt. Col Alexander Vindman, is in charge of reviewing materials by current or former NSC officials in the prepublication review.

Meanwhile, Stelter noted, Bolton’s book had just gone on sale for pre-order:

Amazing how this happened immediately after The New York Times ran their story, almost like it was coordinated to promote book sales!

This tweet from Stelter was posted 25 minutes ago: pic.twitter.com/PXxWOyLJQu

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 27, 2020

It was unclear whether the launch of the Amazon site was coincidental.

The White House continues presenting its opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial on Monday.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.