Late Wednesday, the Department of Justice filed for an emergency restraining order to stop the publication of former national security adviser John Bolton’s book on his time in the Trump administration.

But the highlights of the book have already been made public. Excerpts of the book were published on Wednesday by The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

Perhaps more importantly, the book has already been printed and hundreds of thousands of copies have been distributed for the books release next week.

JUST IN: Simon & Schuster's response to the DOJ's new filing against Bolton: "A frivolous, politically motivated exercise in futility. Hundreds of thousands of copies of the book have already been distributed around the country and the world."

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 18, 2020

So all this makes the timing of the move by DOJ curious. As they say in Texas, the horse is out of the barn.

The White House has known about the Bolton book coming since January. It has been clear for many days that Bolton was moving ahead with publication. A request for an emergency injunction was filed by DoJ … today.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 17, 2020

The Washington Post writes:

“Bolton’s memoir, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” an account of his 19 months as President Trump’s top national security official, offers a withering portrait of Trump as an erratic and ignorant leader who constantly places his own personal whims above the national interest.”

Bolton writes in his book, among a myriad of allegations, that Donald Trump asked for help from the Chinese to win reelection in 2020.