Tag: John Bolton

Trump wants to block Bolton’s book, claiming most conversations are classified

Washington Post logoPresident Trump has directly weighed in on the White House review of a forthcoming book by his former national security adviser, telling his staff that he views John Bolton as “a traitor,” that everything he uttered to the departed aide about national security is classified and that he will seek to block the book’s publication, according to two people familiar with the conversations.

The president’s private arguments stand in contrast to the point-by-point process used to classify and protect sensitive secrets and appears to differ from the White House’s public posture toward Bolton’s much-anticipated memoir. The National Security Council warned Bolton last month that his draft “appears to contain significant amounts of classified information,” some of it top secret, but pledged to help him revise the manuscript and “move forward as expeditiously as possible.”

“We will do our best to work with you to ensure your client’s ability to tell his story in a manner that protects U.S. national security,” Ellen Knight, senior director of the council’s records office, wrote in a Jan. 23 letter to Bolton’s attorney.

Susan Rice confronts John Bolton face to face over impeachment failure: ‘I can’t imagine withholding my testimony’

AlterNet logoSusan Rice confronted John Bolton face to face over his failure to testify in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

Rice, who served as former President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, shared a stage Wednesday with Trump’s former national security adviser at Vanderbilt University, and she confronted Bolton over keeping quiet about his concerns over Ukraine, reported The Guardian.

“I can’t imagine withholding my testimony with or without a subpoena,” Rice said. “I would feel like I was shamefully violating the oath that I took to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.” Continue reading.

John Bolton breaks his silence after Trump impeachment: ‘I knew what I was getting into’

Former national security adviser scant on details about Ukraine, but says he worries ‘effort to write history’ will be censored

John Bolton celebrated Presidents’ Day by breaking his silence for the first time since Donald Trump’s impeachment trial – speaking of his frustrations and teasing the content of his forthcoming book.

But when it came to his former boss, the president’s former national security adviser was scant on details, hinting that he is restricted in what he can say.

Bolton, who left the White House in September following foreign policy disagreements, was interviewed on stage on Monday night at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Continue  reading.

Bolton Hints at Further Revelations if He Overcomes White House ‘Censorship’

New York Times logoIn his first public appearance since the impeachment trial, the president’s former national security adviser said he was fighting efforts to suppress his unpublished book.

DURHAM, N.C. — John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser to President Trump, suggested on Monday that his unpublished book contained far more revelations than just the campaign to pressure Ukraine for help with domestic politics but said he was fighting “censorship” by the White House.

In his first public appearance since the Senate impeachment trial in which Republicans refused to hear his testimony, Mr. Bolton said that the White House was trying to keep him from publishing important parts of his new memoir by terming them classified. He said he was pushing back but feared that a pre-publication review could stop the book from being published next month.

“For all the focus on Ukraine and the impeachment trial and all that, to me, there are portions of the manuscript that deal with Ukraine, I view that like the sprinkles on the ice cream sundae in terms of what’s in the book,” Mr. Bolton told an audience at Duke University during a forum on foreign policy on Monday evening. “This is an effort to write history and I did it the best I can. We’ll have to see what comes out of the censorship.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler Says House Will Likely Subpoena John Bolton

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., says the House expects to continue its investigations into President Trump’s conduct, even after Wednesday’s expected acquittal of Trump in the Senate impeachment trial.

Speaking with reporters, Nadler says the House “will likely” subpoena former national security adviser John Bolton. Bolton had said he would comply with a Senate subpoena during the impeachment trial, but the Senate voted against calling witnesses. According to published reports, Bolton, in a book manuscript, describes being told by the president that he was withholding aid to Ukraine until the Ukrainian government began an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

Nadler did not have a timeline for when Bolton would be subpoenaed but noted that a subpoena could come from the Judiciary or other investigative committees. Continue reading.

How John Bolton can lawfully break his silence — and speak out against Trump: legal experts

AlterNet logoLast week during President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, Senate Republicans closed the door on the possibility of featuring former National Security Adviser John Bolton or anyone else as a witness: only two Republicans, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, voted in favor of featuring witnesses during the trial. But Democrats are still determined to hear what Bolton has to say in his forthcoming book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir” (due out March 17). And legal experts Jameel Jaffer and Ramya Krishnan, in an article for Law & Crime, examine some possible ways in which Bolton can lawfully speak out on Ukraine.

“The fact that Bolton’s book is in the hands of the censors does not mean that Bolton could not share his story with the public now if he wanted to,” explain Jaffer (former deputy legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU) and Krishnan (a staff attorney at Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute).

One of the things the Trump White House has been doing in the hope of silencing Bolton is claiming that they are worried about him possibly revealing classified information. But according to Jaffer and Krishnan, there are ways around that. Continue reading.

Trump’s impeachment lawyer at center of disputed Bolton claims

Pat Cipollone allegedly witnessed a reported conversation in which John Bolton claims Trump tried to recruit him for his Ukraine scheme.

President Donald Trump is denying a new allegation that he coordinated with his top aides earlier than previously known on an effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political opponents — a claim that further entangles Trump’s top impeachment lawyer in the Ukraine investigation.

The New York Times reported earlier Friday that former national security adviser John Bolton claims in his forthcoming book that Trump directed him to ensure that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would meet with Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney.

Bolton reportedly indicated that acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House counsel Pat Cipollone — who is spearheading Trump’s defense at the Senate’s ongoing impeachment trial — also attended the early-May 2019 meeting in the Oval Office.

Brian Kilmeade Goes Rogue On Fox News: John Bolton Is ‘Not A Liar’

The Fox News host reminded his colleagues that the former national security adviser was once a regular fixture on their program.

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade broke rank with his colleagues on the network Thursday, defending former national security adviser John Bolton.

Bolton, who was previously well-received on the network and appeared as a paid contributor for over a decade, has been harshly criticized by numerous Fox News hosts this week.

The change of heart comes in the wake of reported allegations in Bolton’s forthcoming book, a copy of which was leaked to The New York Times. The manuscript reportedly confirms the key charge against President Donald Trump in his Senate impeachment trial: that he explicitly tied the exchange of congressionally approved military aid to the opening of an investigation into a leading rival for the November presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Biden’s son Hunter. Continue reading.

Bolton’s lawyer contends his book does not contain classified material and asks White House for expedited review so he can testify if called

Washington Post logoAn attorney for John Bolton has pushed back against the White House’s assessment that his book manuscript contains classified material and asked for an expedited review of a chapter about Ukraine in case the former national security adviser is called to testify in the Senate impeachment trial.

The Jan. 24 email to the White House from Bolton’s lawyer, Charles Cooper, was in response to a letter from the National Security Council a day earlier warning that the manuscript contained “significant amounts” of classified material that could not be disclosed publicly.

“We do not believe that any of that information could reasonably be considered classified,” Cooper responded, according to a copy of the email he released Wednesday. Continue reading.

All the president’s disloyal men: Trump demands fealty but inspires very little

Washington Post logoThe Debrief: An occasional series offering a reporter’s insights

President Trump’s personal lawyer called him “John the Backstabber.” A pro-Trump Fox News host described him as “a tool for the radical Democrats.” And the president himself dismissed John Bolton, his former national security adviser, as a disgruntled lackey trying “only to sell a book.”

The explosive disclosures in Bolton’s forthcoming memoir about his time in the White House — including his firsthand allegation that Trump directly tied the holdup of $391 million of military aid for Ukraine to investigations into a political rival — prompted cries of heresy and betrayal from Trump and his allies.

But the short gestation period — less than five months — between Bolton’s September exit from the administration to his damning book manuscript underscores an uncomfortable truth for Trump: For a president who demands absolute loyalty, he inspires strikingly little of the same, with former aides, advisers and associates turning on him with thrumming regularity.