Impeachment defense, Day Two: The Bolton brouhaha
by Byron York
| January 27, 2020 05:04 PM

It was entirely predictable that the Trump impeachment trial would feature a January surprise, and now it has arrived. It came in the form of a New York Times report that former national security adviser John Bolton, in a new book, writes that the president told him that he "wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens."

The words are from the New York Times, not Bolton. Neither the report nor any other has quoted even a word from the Bolton book.

The news jolted the impeachment trial on the second day of the Trump defense, and it gave rise to a dizzying number of questions and scenarios.

The most obvious question is what effect the Bolton book will have on the Democratic push to have Bolton testify in the Senate trial. Democrats asked Bolton to testify before the House Intelligence Committee last October but did not subpoena him or make any effort to compel his testimony. They even withdrew a subpoena for one of Bolton's deputies, claiming that the legal process to enforce a subpoena would take too long.

The Bolton news made it all the more mystifying why the House did not pursue Bolton's testimony. More than three months have passed since it could have issued such a subpoena. The process might be nearly over at this point, with a decision expected soon. And the president would have been given a chance to defend the confidentiality of his relationship with his closest advisers. But the House chose not to act, leaving the issue to Senate Democrats.-- excerpt, rest at link above --

Fred Fleitz: Ambassador Bolton, withdraw your book

By Fred Fleitz | Fox News

It was crushing to read weekend press reports that my friend and former boss John Bolton plans to publish a tell-all book on his time as President Trump’s National Security Adviser. The book reportedly will be published in March 2020. Given the importance of protecting a president’s confidential discussions with his senior advisers, I strongly disagree with Bolton’s decision to release the book before the November presidential election and call on him to withdraw it from the publisher immediately.

I have known John Bolton for 30 years and served as his chief of staff twice, at the State Department from 2001-2005 and at the White House National Security Council in 2018. He is an exceptional national security expert and a man of great integrity. President Trump’s choice of Bolton was one of his best personnel decisions and was I very sorry when the courageous and visionary national security adviser left the White House after the relationship broke down.

Bolton played an important role in some of President Trump’s most successful foreign policy decisions, including withdrawing from the nuclear deal with Iran, moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and the 2018 Counterterrorism Strategy. While there was some criticism of Bolton’s performance as National Security Adviser, most of it was unfair and reflected the difficulty of overseeing President Trump’s national security policies when careerists and Obama holdovers in other government agencies, especially the State Department, were actively working to obstruct and defeat the president’s policies.-- excerpt, rest at link above --

I'm guessing they're not friends anymore.

Thanks, @Right_in_Virginia.

In a sane world there would be bipartisan support tomorrow to amend the rules to forgo the 16 hours of Senate questions, and immediately move to a vote to acquit that carries with solid bipartisan results....