Trump's attempt to block John Bolton's book by saying its contents are classified appears to contradict his claim that it is full of lies

• President Donald Trump has described a new tell-all memoir by former national security adviser John Bolton as "made up of lies and fake stories."
• The administration is also suing Bolton, alleging that his new book contains classified information not vetted for release.
• Critics are pointing out that the two lines of attack are contradictory — if the book's claims are classified then they can't be lies, and vice-versa.

President Donald Trump has responded to the allegations in John Bolton's new explosive memoir by calling his former national security adviser a liar.

"Wacko John Bolton's "exceedingly tedious"(New York Times) book is made up of lies & fake stories," tweeted the president late Wednesday, as a series of alarming claims from the book emerged.

The Department of Justice has launched a lawsuit against Bolton, alleging that his book contains classified information that he didn't seek approval to release, and seeking to stall its publication.

A potential problem, as critics are pointing out, is that the two attacks are apparently contradictory: information can only be classified if it is true, so Bolton can't both be lying and also divulging classified information.

Michael McFaul, who served as the US ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration, said: "You cannot be releasing classified information and lying at the same time. Trump has to pick one attack against Bolton and stick with it."

—Michael McFaul (@McFaul) June 18, 2020

—Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) June 17, 2020

Trump in his tweet didn't specify which of Bolton's claims are lies — but in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Wednesday he specifically took issue with Bolton's allegations about his dealings with Russia and China.

—Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) June 18, 2020

In some of the most damaging claims in his memoir, Bolton writes that Trump sought Chinese president Xi Jinping's help in winning the 2020 election, asking him to boost Chinese imports of agricultural goods to secure the support of US farmers.

Bolton claims that Russia's President Vladimir Putin would've been"laughing uproariously" after Trump's disastrous 2018 Helsinki summit with the Russian leader, where he seemingly accepted Putin's denial of involvement in 2016 electoral interference over the evidence of US intelligence.

"Nobody has been tough on China and nobody has been tough on Russia like I have," Trump boasted to Hannity. "And that's in the record books and it's not even close. The last administration did nothing on either."

Turning to Bolton, he insisted that "he broke the law. Very simple. I mean, as much as it's going to be broken." Trump said. "It's highly classified information and he did not have approval."

In a statement to Business Insider, White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews said that the book contained both lies and classified information.

"Two things can be true at once: Bolton's book is largely a work of fiction, full of untruths he knew better than to say under oath and it contains classified information damaging to the U.S. and our allies," she said.

Matthews did not immediately respond to a request to specify examples of claims by Bolton that are false, and claims that are classified.

The DoJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But if the president is to continue insisting that the book's most damaging claims are false, the administration's lawyers won't have much success in arguing that Bolton should be punished for publishing them.

"One interesting wrinkle for the government is that in order to claim elements of Bolton's book are classified, the government must admit the information in question is true. There's no such thing as a classified lie," tweeted Susan Hennessy, a legal analysts and former intelligence community attorney.

Bolton for his part denies that the book contains classified information, writing that he made "numerous changes to the manuscript in order to obtain clearance to publish, the vast bulk of which, in my view, did not change the facts set forth."

In an extract of the book published by The Wall Street Journal, Bolton writes that the White House took issue in a pre-publication review specifically with his desire to quote the president's words in the meeting with China's President Xi in July 2019 where they discussed the US election.

"I would print Trump's exact words, but the government's pre-publication review process has decided otherwise," writes Bolton.