Donald Trump’s impeachment nightmare grew worse on Wednesday as former national security adviser John Bolton said he will testify in the impeachment investigation if he’s served with a subpoena.
Bolton’s lawyer said he isn’t willing to testify voluntarily, but he all but confirmed that his client would happily cooperate if the Democrats issued a subpoena.
BREAKING: The lawyer for Trump’s former NSA advisor John Bolton says he will not testify “voluntarily,” but stands ready to “accept” a subpoena from Democrats. pic.twitter.com/DheBa9QQgk
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 30, 2019
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Bolton could be Trump’s most damaging witness yet
The witnesses that have come forward up to this point – many of them current or former Trump administration officials – have been severely damaging to the president’s impeachment defense.
The most recent testimony delivered by Purple Heart recipient Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman revealed a series of damming facts related to Trump’s Ukraine scheme – from the blatant quid pro quo to the effort to hide and scrub the call transcript.
In other words, House investigators don’t need John Bolton’s testimony to prove that Trump committed impeachable offenses. That has been established for weeks, and it continues to be confirmed by a revolving door of credible witnesses.
But Bolton’s potential testimony could be the most explosive yet because of his proximity to the Ukraine scandal as it was happening in real-time.
As The Washington Post reported this week, “In a pair of volatile meetings, senior White House officials, including then-national security adviser John Bolton, were confronted with the outlines of a scheme they had previously only suspected: President Trump was seeking to use the power of his office to pressure Ukraine to deliver damaging information on former vice president Joe Biden and his son.”
Once Bolton knew about the scheme, he was alarmed. He referred to it as a “drug deal” and asked former Trump adviser Fiona Hill to “notify the chief lawyer for the National Security Council about a rogue effort by Mr. Sondland, Mr. Giuliani and Mick Mulvaney.”
Republicans are already struggling to defend this flailing president. Testimony from John Bolton – a fixture of Republican politics for decades – could completely obliterate whatever is left of their defense.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
