Ellen Knight, a non-political appointee who was ousted from the National Security Council by then-President Donald Trump and his national security adviser at the time because he sought to approve former National Security Adviser John Bolton's tell-all book for publication. pushed for. , is back in the NSC after being reappointed by President Joe Biden and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, sources told CNN.
"Ellen Knight is a dedicated career public servant," NSC spokeswoman Emily Horn told CNN in a statement after reaching CNN for comment.
"We are grateful to have his return as Senior Director of Records, Access and Information Security Management at the National Security Council and to benefit from his extensive experience in classified information management," Horn said.
In 2018, Knight was detailed from the National Archives and Records Administration to the NSC. In a letter to Knight's attorneys, Knight said that in 2020, she and a colleague put Bolton's book - "The Room Where It Happened" - for review, completing the process in April and diligently removing all sensitive Spent hundreds of hours working from and classified information, as confirmed by a senior.
She was ready to clear the book for publication but NSC lawyers directed her not to do so. She concluded, her lawyers later wrote, that "a politically apolitical process was commanded by political appointments for a politically political purpose." He said that for months, NSC and Justice Department officials pushed him to delay the process.
A letter from Knight's attorneys said, "She asked them (the White House and Justice Department attorneys) to explain that they are working to resolve potential national security issues through engagement with Ambassador Bolton and his team." Why were you insisting on taking the litigation forward instead." “Apart from a rote run of the government’s legal position, lawyers had no answer to her challenges. … However, when Ms. Knight speculated that it was being sued ‘because the most powerful person in the world said its 'Many recorded their agreement with that diagnosis of the condition.