Stalling Tactic

   John Bolton's tell-all book about problems within the Trump administration is making news as advance copies were distributed to journalists, who are quoting parts of it.
   This despite a last minute legal challenge by the White House to prevent publication on the claim that it contains information protected by government secrecy provisions.
   However, the book had been scheduled to be published in April, and typically, manuscripts are submitted to officials early to make sure there are no security objections. But April came and went, with no reaction from the Trump team, so the publisher went ahead with plans to release the book.
   In recent days, the team threatened a lawsuit to prevent publication, but by that time copies had already been printed and were ready for distribution to reviewers.
   At issue, of course, is not only whether the manuscript does, in fact, contain top-secret information that should not be revealed, or whether the allegations are primarily embarrassing to the president.
   If the former, then the White House Team had ample time to review the manuscript and seek changes, but they apparently did not propose revisions. If the latter, then the First Amendment of the Constitution applies, and any attempt to suppress publication merely because it is critical of the president is no more than a stalling tactic.