Calling Mr. Bolton

Probers want testimony

House impeachment investigators have asked former National Security Adviser John Bolton and two White House lawyers to testify next week.

Bolton is scheduled to be deposed on Nov. 7, while National Security Council attorneys John Eisenberg and Michael Ellis are slated to appear on Nov. 4, according to multiple reports.

It was not immediately clear if they would comply with the requests to appear.

President Trump in September said that Bolton was fired, while the veteran foreign-policy hawk asserted that he had quit over Trump’s policies in North Korea, among other issues.

Meanwhile, a US diplomat testified Wednesday thar a former GOP congressman-turned-lobbyist repeatedly pushed for the dismissal of US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was eventually recalled by Trump at the urging of Rudy Giuliani.

Catherine Croft, now a State Department Ukraine expert who was a member of the National Security Council staff at the White House from July 2017 to July 2018, testified under subpoena over her department’s objections.

“During my time at the NSC, I received multiple calls from lobbyist Robert Livingston, who told me that Ambassador Yovanovitch should be fired. He characterized Ambassador Yovanovitch as an ‘Obama holdover’ and associated with George Soros,” Croft said in her opening statement of former Louisiana Rep. Livingston.

Billionaire Soros is known for his support of liberal causes.

“It was not clear to me at the time — or now — at whose direction or at whose expense Mr. Livingston was seeking the removal of Ambassador Yovanovitch,” Croft said.

Giuliani has said he went to Trump and the State Department as part of his effort to have Yovanovitch removed at a time when he was seeking to persuade Ukraine to open an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden.

Also testifying was Christopher Anderson, like Croft a Ukraine specialist at the State Department. Anderson, in his opening statement, said Bolton cautioned him that Giuliani “was a key voice with the president on Ukraine” and could complicate American goals in the Eastern European country.

Meanwhile, Politico reported Wednesday that Tim Morrison, the senior director for Russian affairs at the National Security Council, who is expected to testify to impeachment investigators Thursday, is stepping down from his White House position.