CHICKEN KIEV
Mitch refuses to budge on witnesses despite Bolton’s Ukraine bombshell
A leaked draft of John Bolton’s forthcoming book shook up President Trump’s impeachment trial Monday and prompted even Republican senators to acknowledge the need for Ukraine scheme testimony from the former national security adviser.
Over the weekend, several reports revealed Bolton’s yetto-be-released tell-all, “The Room Where It Happened,” contains an account of an August conversation in which Trump explicitly told the ex-national security honcho that he wanted to keep holding up $391 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine until the country helped him by announcing investigations of Joe Biden and other Democratic rivals.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared unfazed by the Bolton development and didn’t comment one way or the other how he viewed it, other than saying through a spokesman that he didn’t receive “advance notice” of the draft’s existence.
McConnell (R-Ky.), who has so far been able to keep his GOP members in line, suggested at the outset of the trial that he doesn’t want to call more witnesses in favor of quickly acquitting Trump of all charges.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney — who’s among a small group of moderate Republicans facing pressure from Democrats to vote in favor of subpoenaing testimony from Bolton — suggested the bombshell manuscript revelations may turn out to be the deciding factor.
“It’s increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton,” Romney told reporters. “I have spoken with others who have opined upon this. … It’s important to be able to hear from John Bolton for us to be able to make an
impartial judgment.”
Maine Sen. Susan Collins, another Republican in the vulnerable moderate camp, echoed Romney’s sentiment.
“The reports about John Bolton’s book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues,” Collins said in a statement.
Ultimately, Senate Democrats need at least four Republicans to break ranks and vote with them in order to authorize subpoenas for Bolton and any other outstanding witnesses or records.
Such a vote is expected later this week, after Trump’s legal team wraps up its defense and senators are given a chance to pose questions to both sides.
During Monday’s trial session, Trump’s attorneys didn’t even want to get into the Bolton revelations.
“We deal with transcript evidence, we deal with publicly available information,” top Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said at the outset of the proceeding. “We do not deal with speculation, allegations that are not based on evidentiary standards at all.”
Still, the explosive Bolton draft deeply undercuts Team Trump’s claim that the president had legitimate policy reasons for holding up the aid, which Ukraine relies on to push back on Russian military aggression.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who’s spearheading the quest for more witnesses, speculated fresh evidence will keep coming out even if Republicans refuse to subpoena it.
“This is getting to be a little bit, in this sense maybe, like Watergate. Almost every few days there’s another revelation and another revelation and another revelation. And the case gets stronger and stronger,” Schumer said.
Speaking at a noon photo opportunity at the White House with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, Trump insisted that the Bolton account was incorrect and that “nothing was said to John.”
“Totally false,” the president said.
Trump blocked Bolton and several other top administration officials from complying with House requests for testimony as part of an all-out stonewalling campaign that prompted Democrats to draft the second article of impeachment on obstruction of Congress.
Earlier Monday, Trump falsely claimed the House had not tried to secure testimony from Bolton and that Democrats should not be given a second chance to hear him in the Senate.
“The Democrat controlled House never even asked John Bolton to testify,” he tweeted incorrectly. “It is up to them, not up to the Senate.”
It remains unclear how details of Bolton’s book became public. His lawyer denies spilling the beans to The New York Times, which first broke the story.
Bolton submitted a draft of his book to the White House National Security Council for routine vetting after Christmas last year, his lawyer said. That could explain why Trump’s defenders ramped up their opposition to any witnesses at the Senate trial around the same time.