NATIONAL COUNCIL
WASHINGTON, D.C. 

January 23, 2020

Charles J. Cooper

Cooper Kirk

1523 New Hampshire Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20036

SENT VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL TO 
Dear Mr. Cooper:

Thank you for speaking yesterday by telephone. As we discussed, the National Security
Council (N SC) Access Management directorate has been provided the manuscript submitted by
your client, former Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs John Bolton, for
prepublication review. Based on our preliminary review, the manuscript appears to contain
signi?cant amounts of classi?ed information. It also appears that some of this classi?ed
information is at the TOP SECRET level, which is de?ned by Executive Order 13526 as
information that ?reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave harm to the national
security? of the United States if disclosed without authorization. Under federal law and the
nondisclosure agreements your client signed as a condition for gaining access to classi?ed
information, the manuscript may not be published or otherwise disclosed without the deletion of
this classi?ed information.

The manuscript remains under review in order for us to do our best to assist your client
by identifying the classi?ed information within the manuscript, while at the same time ensuring
that publication does not harm the national security of the United States. We will do our best to
work with you to ensure your client?s ability to tell his story in a manner that protects U.S.
national security. We will be in touch with you shortly with additional, more detailed guidance
regarding next steps that should enable you to revise the manuscript and move forward as
expeditiously as possible.

Sincerely,

Ellen J. Knight

Senior Director for Records, Access, and
Information Security Management