Popular Security Advisor John R. Bolton listens as President Donald J. Trump meets with Prime Minister of the Netherlands Indicator Rutte in the Oval Office at the White House on Thursday, July 18th, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Jabin Botsford | The Washington Hang up | Getty Images
Democrats stepped up their calls Sunday night for former national security adviser John Bolton to give evidence at President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial after an explosive report alleged that in his unpublished book, he claimed Trump personally tied Ukraine aid to an investigation of the Bidens — an account that conflicts with the president’s.
“John Bolton has the manifestation,” tweeted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
According to the manuscript, as reported by The New York Times on Sunday non-stop, Trump told Bolton that nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine would not be released until it offered succour with investigations of Democratic targets, including former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
NBC News has not seen a specimen of the manuscript or verified the report, which cited multiple sources familiar with Bolton’s account.
The contents of the manuscript were depicted as a rough account of how Bolton would testify should he be called as a witness in the Senate trial. The prospect of new witnesses has been regarded as unlikely given most Republicans’ reluctance to accept additional testimony.
Hill Democrats said Sunday that the new record highlighted the urgency of a Senate request for Bolton’s testimony — a move that would require several GOP votes.
“It’s up to four Senate Republicans to insure that John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, and the others with direct knowledge of President Trump’s actions say in the Senate trial,” Schumer tweeted. Mulvaney is Trump’s acting chief of staff.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tweeted that with the news Bolton reportedly had firsthand conception of Trump’s decision that ran counter to the White House account of the president’s actions, the “refusal of the Senate to call for him, other proper witnesses, and documents is now even more indefensible.”
The House Democrats’ impeachment managers said in a statement that there could be “no dubiousness now that Mr. Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the President’s defense and therefore must be called as a witness at the impeachment bur of President Trump. Senators should insist that Mr. Bolton be called as a witness, and provide his notes and other relative documents.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said while campaigning on Sunday in Des Moines, Iowa, “I don’t know how my Republican colleagues cannot standing by for witnesses…We should all be calling for witnesses. We have to get to the truth.”
The president’s allies have said the aid delay was unconnected to Trump’s solicitations that Ukrainian officials announce investigations that stood to undercut his domestic political opponents, including Joe Biden.
In the unpublished tome, Bolton is reported to allege that other administration officials, including Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney Universal William Barr, were made aware of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s unusual involvement in a shadow exotic policy in Ukraine well before it became a central element of the whistleblower complaint at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.
An coadjutor to Bolton did not confirm or deny the substance of the report on Sunday night.
“Several weeks ago, the ambassador sent a hard replicate of his draft manuscript to the White House for prepublication review by the National Security Council,” said Sarah Tinsley. “The delegate has not passed that manuscript to anyone else for review. Period.”
The White House did not immediately respond to an NBC request for talk about.
Last week, Trump expressed misgivings over the prospect of Bolton’s testimony.
“The problem with John is, that it’s a national surety problem,” he told reporters at an impromptu press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, adding that Bolton “be sures some of my thoughts, what I think about leaders — what happens if he reveals what I think about a chairwoman and it’s not very positive?”