Before Vice President Kamala Harris delivered pointed remarks Sunday about the need for an immediate six-week cease-fire between Israel and Hamas as part of a deal to release hostages, officials at the National Security Council toned down parts of her speech, three current U.S. officials and a former U.S. official familiar with the speech told NBC News.  

White House aides improperly intervened to prevent a manuscript by President Trump’s former national security adviser John R. Bolton from becoming public, a career official said in a letter filed in court on Wednesday, accusing them of making false assertions and trying to coerce her to join their efforts, and suggesting that they retaliated when she refused.

A former career official at the National Security Council claims her pre-publication review of former national security adviser John Bolton's explosive book on President Trump was "commandeered by political appointees for a seemingly political purpose," according to a letter from her lawyers filed in court on Tuesday.

Why it matters: The White House fought against the publication of Bolton's book for most of the year on the grounds that it contained harmful and "significant amounts of classified information."

A former National Security Council (NSC) official says the White House intervened in “unprecedented” fashion in the prepublication review process of former national security adviser John Bolton’s book in an effort to deem information classified and prevent the memoir’s publication.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the Ukraine expert at the National Security Council who became a star witness in the House impeachment hearings on President Trump's dealings with Ukraine, was escorted out of the White House on Friday, his lawyer said, adding Trump had "decided to exact revenge."

"There is no question in the mind of any American why this man's job is over, why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House. LTC Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth," David Pressman of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP said in a statement.

“Do not worry. I will be fine for telling the truth,” Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman testified in November, during the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against Ukraine.

But now that the Senate has delivered the president “total acquittal” on two articles of impeachment, a triumphant Trump is apparently seeking vengeance. And Vindman appears to be his first target.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman has been fired from the National Security Council and escorted out of the White House.

“Today, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman was escorted out of the White House where he has dutifully served his country and his President. He does so having spoken publicly once, and only pursuant to a subpoena from the United States Congress," Vindman's attorney released in a statement.

Vindman's ousting comes as part of a restructuring of the NSC, which has been in the works for months.

Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert on the National Security Council, said President Trump’s demands for Ukraine to announce investigations into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the 2016 elections amounted to a “domestic political errand” that diverged from American foreign policy goals.

Former National Security Council aide Fiona Hill clashed with Republicans during Thursday’s Trump impeachment inquiry hearings after accusing some lawmakers of embracing the “fictional narrative” that only Ukraine -- and not Russia -- interfered in the 2016 elections, igniting a fierce response.

The testy proceedings at the Capitol also included testimony from David Holmes, a U.S. State Department official in Ukraine, who described how he overheard a phone call this summer with President Trump about wanting Ukraine to conduct political investigations.