Pirated copies of ex-Trump adviser John Bolton’s bombshell book surface online
- Publisher battling illegal free distribution of The Room Where It Happened, which contains scathing criticism of US president
- Memoir officially comes out on Tuesday after failed lawsuit by Trump’s Justice Department
A PDF of The Room Where It Happened has turned up on the internet, offering a free, pirated edition of the former national security adviser’s scathing takedown of US President Donald Trump, who has alleged that the book contains classified material that never should have been released.
“We are working assiduously to take down these clearly illegal instances of copyright infringement,” Simon & Schuster spokesman Adam Rothberg said on Sunday.
Piracy has long been a top concern among publishers, especially in the digital age, although the actual impact on sales is undetermined.
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Trump ‘pleaded’ for China to help him get re-elected, writes former US adviser Bolton in new book
The Room Where It Happened has been No 1 for days on the Amazon.com bestseller list and will officially be released Tuesday.
On Saturday, a federal judge ruled that Simon & Schuster could publish the book despite the Trump administration’s contention that it compromised national security.
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The Room Where It Happened was originally scheduled for March, but was delayed twice as the White House reviewed the manuscript.
Bolton’s legal team has said that he spent months addressing White House concerns about classified information and that Bolton had been assured in late April by the official he was working with that the manuscript no longer contained any such material.