The Book of Bolton

You’re President Trump’s impeachment legal team. In the face of a bombshell report that the manuscript of former national security adviser John Bolton blows to bits the White House’s story on the Ukraine shakedown, how do you start your first full day of defense?

Let Ken Starr stand on the Senate floor and deliver a meandering statement bemoaning a 42-year era of partisanship and too-frequent impeachments. Yes, that Ken Starr.

Followed by outside counsel Jay Sekulow asserting that “not a single witness” had testified to hearing Trump himself say that the Ukraine military aid was linked to investigations.

For that, blame White House obstruction (see impeachment, Article 2), which prevented House Democrats from speaking to several people, particularly Bolton, who earlier testimony identified as the one who deemed the Ukraine arms-for-investigation plot a “drug deal” cooked up by Rudy Giuliani and European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland.

According to The New York Times, Bolton’s book reveals that Trump told him the $391 million in military aid would remain blocked until Ukraine officials announced investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden and other Democrats. Bolton further claims that he, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper were pressing Trump for months to release the aid.

Par for the course, Trump tweeted a denial of the claims — making it that much harder to assert executive privilege to silence his former aide.

After all this, any senator refusing to hear from Bolton is worse than derelict. He or she is an accomplice in a coverup.