Ahead of its official release on Tuesday, John Bolton's memoir "The Room Where It Happened" has turned up on the internet, offering a free, pirated PDF version of the former national security adviser's scathing takedown of US President Donald Trump. The book, which survived a security review and a legal challenge from the Justice Department, has come in for harsh Trump criticism. He 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 Sunday. Piracy has long been a top concern among publishers, especially in the digital age, although the actual impact on sales is undetermined. "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. "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. — Agencies
