Publishing Date and Other Details Revealed for John Bolton’s New Book The Room Where it Happened

New details are emerging about John Bolton’s potentially bombshell account of his time as national security for President Donald Trump titled “The Room Where it Happened.” The New York Times reported Sunday that Bolton will claim in the upcoming book that the president wanted to withhold military aid from Ukraine until officials in the country announced investigations into Joe Biden and his family, the New York Times reported Sunday.

The stunning revelation comes as Trump battles an impeachment trial in the Senate over his efforts to have an investigation into his political rival announced by Ukraine, and undermines a chief argument of Republicans that military aid was not conditioned on such an announcement.

Publisher Simon & Schuster had previously only confirmed that Bolton was working on a book, not revealing any specific details. We now know not just the title, but also the release date is March 17th, 2020.  On Sunday, Amazon put up a page for pre-sale orders, which includes the following anodyne description:

John Bolton served as National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump for 519 days. A seasoned public servant who had previously worked for Presidents Reagan, Bush #41, and Bush #43,  Bolton brought to the administration thirty years of experience in international issues and a reputation for tough, blunt talk. In his memoir, he offers a substantive and factual account of his time in the room where it happened.

The New York Times story, reported by Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman, opens by claiming that Bolton’s book will assert that Trump specifically told him that Ukraine aid was being withheld until the former Soviet state helped with investigations into the Bidens:

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to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens, according to an unpublished manuscript by the former adviser, John R. Bolton.

The allegations that Trump used the power of the Executive branch of government he oversees to pressure a foreign state to investigate a domestic political rival lay at the heart of the ongoing impeachment proceedings that presents an existential threat to his presidency. The ongoing Senate trial has not reached the point in which either side will call for witnesses, however, this bombshell report will certainly bring more pressure for Senators to call Bolton as a witness.

President Trump specifically denied this claim on Twitter early Monday morning, stating “I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.”

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