Pirate copies of Bolton memoir appear online

A digital version of former US national security adviser John Bolton’s memoir has appeared on the internet over the weekend, ahead of its official release on Tuesday.

A PDF file of The Room Where It Happened has turned up online offering a free, pirated edition of Mr Bolton’s scathing takedown of American president Donald Trump.

The memoir has survived a security review and a legal challenge from the Justice Department.

Mr Trump alleges 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.

The Room Where It Happened has been number one for days on the Amazon.com bestseller list and will officially be released on Tuesday.

A federal judge ruled on Saturday 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.

Mr Bolton’s legal team has said that he spent months addressing White House concerns about classified information and that he had been assured in late April by the official he was working with that the manuscript no longer contained any such material.