President Trump Responds to Allegations Made in John Bolton’s Forthcoming Book

Congressional Democrats are still holding out hope that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will capitulate on the subject of witnesses for President Trump’s impeachment trial, and former national security adviser John Bolton is making it difficult for those who are still opposed to the idea.

Bolton has slowly been slinking out from the shadows of the UkraineGate scandal, first publicly stating that he would be willing to provide testimony to Congress were he to be subpoenaed.  This, of course, would set up a massive constitutional showdown on the subject of executive privilege – something that the Democrats won’t likely win.

Now, after no such subpoena seems to be in the making, Bolton is taking another route, and publishing this side of the story in an upcoming book about the geopolitical debacle.  What Bolton has had to say so far has irked President Trump, who responded to the accusations early this week.

In a drastic turn of events for Trump’s impeachment trial, Bolton told lawmakers that he is willing to testify, despite the president’s order barring aides from cooperating in the probe.

Trump denied the allegations in a series of tweets early on Monday.

He wrote: “I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens … If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.”

Trump even said people could look at transcripts of his call and statements by Ukraine President Vlodymyr Zelinskiy that there was no pressure for such investigations to get the aid.

Bolton was referred to by several witnesses during the House’s portion of the impeachment proceedings, with some intimating that the mustachioed war hawk had referred to the alleged holdup of Ukrainian military aid as a “drug deal”.