John Bolton: Trump explicitly said Ukraine aid freeze was tied to investigations into Democrats

Former national security adviser John Bolton has refused House demands that he testify on the events surrounding the freezing of military aid to Ukraine and the efforts by Donald Trump’s allies and administration officials to pressure the Ukrainian government into announcing an investigation into potential Trump election opponent Joe Biden. Bolton is instead writing a book on his tenure.

In the now-circulating manuscript for that unreleased book, reports The New York Times, Bolton writes that Donald Trump personally told him he would continue to freeze the nearly $400 million in aid until Ukrainian officials aided his desired investigations into “Democrats” and “the Bidens.”

Bolton’s manuscript alleges direct involvement in the scheme to falsely smear and remove U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, reports The Times, and Pompeo both knew the claims to be false and suspected Giuliani was “acting on behalf of other clients.” Bolton also says he personally spoke with Trump Attorney General William Barr to inform Barr that Trump had identified him as part of Rudy Giuliani’s efforts on his now-infamous call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: Barr’s office had previously denied that he knew about that call until much later.

Importantly, The Times reports that the Trump White House was sent the manuscript for a standard pre-publication administration review in “recent weeks”—meaning Trump, his legal team, and others implicated have known what Bolton would testify to during this period in which they have loudly and angrily insisted that the Senate call no witnesses. If the White House has intentionally delayed or frozen the book’s publication in an attempt to block it until after the conclusion of the Senate impeachment trial, it could constitute yet another act meant to obstruct justice.

Senate Republicans’ latest cover-up excuse: Trump will obstruct witnesses, so why bother?

Senate Republicans are using Donald Trump’s obstruction of Congress as an excuse for letting him get away with obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. Trump would assert executive privilege to prevent former national security adviser John Bolton from testifying, they say, leading to a long court fight, so … there’s no point in having him testify.

“There will be parts of their testimony, they will be covered by executive privilege and parts that are not. Those have to be litigated. That'll take a couple of months to be able to go through the process,” according to Sen. James Lankford. Enough other Republicans say similar things for it to be a verified talking point, not just an individual concern.

There are so many problems with this. For one thing:

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Okay, actually that was two points: Trump claiming executive privilege to shield himself in an impeachment trial would be unprecedented, and executive privilege is not a gag order on Bolton, who has already said that he would testify under subpoena.

Additionally, Republicans are talking about the courts taking too long. Guess who’s presiding over the impeachment trial? United States Chief Justice John Roberts. Gonna bet that he could short-circuit the court battle on this.

But beyond that, seriously, Republicans? I know your lack of shame knows no bounds, but “He doesn’t want the witnesses to testify so really there’s nothing to be done” would be pathetic if it was sincere. As it is, it’s simply one more piece of evidence of how far Republicans will go to maintain power, embracing the most ridiculous of excuses to avoid making even more details of Trump’s abuses of power public.

As a reminder, large majorities of Americans say the Senate should call witnesses in this impeachment trial, and it would take just four Republican senators to make it happen.