by Audrey Conklin
House investigators called on former National Security Adviser John Bolton to testify in the presidential impeachment inquiry, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Bolton had reportedly expressed concerns with the president putting pressure on Ukraine for political information, three people who heard Oct. 14 testimony from White House aide Fiona Hill told The NYT on Oct. 15.
Bolton and two other top White House lawyers were summoned to testify as lawmakers vote on impeachment proceedings Thursday, according to the AP.
As lawmakers vote on impeachment steps today, investigators ask John Bolton to testify. https://t.co/BJi0BG9BPj
— Max Kutner (@maxkutner) October 31, 2019
The former national security adviser’s lawyer Charles Cooper said Bolton is “not willing to appear voluntarily,” but did not say what he would do if subpoenaed, the AP reported.
Hill reportedly testified that Bolton told her to notify the chief lawyer for the National Security Council that Rudy Giuliani, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Gordon Sondland and White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney were making plans involving Ukraine, according to The NYT, citing people who heard the testimony.
Bolton, according to two of The NYT’s sources, said he wanted nothing to do with whatever Sondland and Mulvaney were “cooking up,” but the third source recalled him referring to Giuliani and Mulvaney.
The former national security adviser’s summoning came on the same day Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan testified that Giuliani was involved in a smear campaign against U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, according to The NYT.
Sullivan added that he didn’t think the president’s request for help from Ukraine was “in accord with our values,” The NYT reported.
The president’s call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asking him to look into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son business dealings in the country became the center of a whistleblower complaint in September, which inspired a formal impeachment inquiry initiated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, though Trump maintains the phone call was congratulatory.
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Audrey Conklin is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “John Bolton” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 3.0.
