Bolton book damages Trump
A leaked manuscript of John Bolton’s book has blasted holes in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial defence and increased pressure on senators to call the former national security adviser as an 11th-hour witness.
Trump accused Bolton of contradicting his defence team ‘‘only to sell a book’’.
Bolton claims in The Room Where It Happened that the president told him that the suspension of aid to Ukraine was directly linked to an investigation that he wanted the country to pursue into the son of Joe Biden, his potential Democratic rival in this year’s presidential election.
The president retweeted messages from supporters yesterday calling Bolton a ‘‘rejected neocon’’ who was ‘‘willing to sell out America, our constitution, truth, their integrity and our great president’’ for ‘‘five minutes of fame’’.
Behind the scenes, however, there was disquiet among some Republicans that the White House had had the Bolton manuscript since December 30 but had still gone ahead with Trump’s defence that there had been ‘‘no quid pro quo’’ for the military aid.
The development could complicate the Senate trial that had seemed to be moving to a quick end – without witnesses – this week.
Moderate Republican senators, including Mitt Romney and Susan Collins, suggested that they were ready to vote with Democrats and demand witnesses.
Romney said that such a move was increasingly likely. Collins said the revelations ‘‘strengthen the case for witnesses’’.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator close to the White House, admitted that Bolton might have to be called as a witness.
Democrats heralded the leak as further justification for impeaching Trump and pushing to call Bolton to give evidence.
According to The New York Times, Bolton’s book implicates senior cabinet members, including Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, and Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff.
It claims that Mulvaney was present for at least one phone call in which Trump and Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, discussed Marie Yovanovitch, then the US ambassador to Ukraine.
According to Bolton, Pompeo acknowledged to him that there was no basis for Giuliani’s claims that Yovanovitch was corrupt.
Suspicions in the Trump camp about Bolton’s motives were compounded when Amazon began taking orders for his book on
Sunday night.
Democratic impeachment managers demanded yesterday that the Senate vote to call Bolton.
‘‘There can be no doubt now that Mr Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the president’s defence,’’ they said in a statement.
Trump tweeted: ‘‘I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination.
‘‘If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.’’
The trial has been told that the aid was released only after a whistleblower raised concerns about it being linked to Trump’s push for investigations.
Trump said in Davos last week that he would seek to use executive privilege to block Bolton from appearing at the trial on national security grounds: ‘‘The problem with John is it’s a national security problem. He knows some of my thoughts.’’
‘‘There can be no doubt now that Mr Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the president’s defence.’’ Democratic impeachment managers