While all of us have heard about the July 25 phone call that Donald Trump had with Ukrainian President Seymour Shutupsky (like you know his name and how to spell it), according to former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s unpublished manuscript, nearly two months before that call, Trump wanted Bolton to help pressure Ukraine and reportedly said all of this in front of his folks.
The New York Times has gotten its hands on a copy of the unpublished manuscript of Bolton’s book, The Room Where It Happened, and according to what they’ve read, Trump wanted Bolton to help pressure Ukraine during a reported Oval Office conversation in early May. And Because Bolton is spilling all the tea, he notes that White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney; the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani; and White House counsel Pat Cipollone—who is now leading the president’s impeachment defense in the Senate impeachment trial—were all there! All of them. Which means that if this is true, Cipollone is leading Trump’s impeachment defense knowing that the impeachable accusation—that Trump wanted Ukraine to open an investigation on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter—is true because he was there in May when Trump asked Bolton to help press them out.
From the New York Post:
The commander-in-chief reportedly told Bolton to call President Volodymyr Zelensky to ensure that Zelensky would meet with Giuliani, who was planning a trip to Ukraine to discuss the investigations that the president sought into Biden, his son Hunter and Ukraine’s purported meddling in the 2016 election.
But Trump quickly denied the reported Bolton claim.
“I never instructed John Bolton to set up a meeting for Rudy Giuliani, one of the greatest corruption fighters in America and by far the greatest mayor in the history of NYC, to meet with President Zelensky. That meeting never happened,” he said in a statement released by the White House.
Rep. Adam Schiff, meanwhile, noted the revelation as proceedings began, saying that it bolstered Democrats’ case for hearing from witnesses.
“There is a new fact which indicates Cipollone was among those who were in the loop…Just as we predicted, and it didn’t require any great act of clairvoyance, the facts will come out,” Schiff said, predicting that more information would be forthcoming.
It would’ve been nice if during the Senate trial we could’ve heard directly from Bolton but Republican senators will most likely vote against those efforts. Mulvaney would’ve been a nice person to hear from, but Trump blocked him and others from accepting a House request to come tell their side.
Hopefully, Bolton is planning a full TV tour to explain what happened on that day since the only people who seem to care about the truth are those of us who didn’t vote for Trump.