The New York Times is reporting that former national security advisor John Bolton was ordered by the President to keep the Ukraine aid package frozen as a way to pressure Kyiv into investigating Trump’s political rivals.
Trump tweeted on Sunday alleging the opposite of the Times’ report.
“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,” the president insisted.
The revelations came from an excerpt of Bolton’s upcoming book. The book details his time spent in the White House and his relationship with the president. In the excerpt, Bolton states that the president told him to continue holding military aid funds back from Ukraine as late as August of 2019.
This directly contradicts numerous statements from Trump.
The White House’s defense during the impeachment trial says that the situation with Ukraine was not quid pro quo. Basically, the defense says that Trump didn’t engage in a scheme with Ukraine to further his own political agenda.
However, Bolton’s statement suggests that Trump was, in fact, engaged in a quid-pro-quo scheme. It was Trump’s attempt to strong-arm a foreign power into investigating his rivals.
Trump’s defense team has argued that the president’s goals have been exclusively to root out corruption, and he had no other motive in asking for the investigation or withholding the aid. However, Democrats are seeking to prove that Trump has acted in bad faith, abusing the public trust by using his office to attempt to influence the 2020 election.
House prosecution managers are pointing to the Times’ report as another reason that Bolton should testify before the Senate during the impeachment trial. In a statement on Monday, the managers noted “During our impeachment inquiry, the President blocked our request for Mr. Bolton’s testimony. Now we see why.”
Many expected Trump to be swiftly acquitted by the Republican majority in the Senate. However, Bolton’s bombshell revelations could prove problematic.
