On Sunday night the New York Times published a scoop about John Bolton’s book in which he confirmed that Trump was engaged in a qui pro quo with Ukraine: “President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens”
In a sign that the entire book or key portions of it have been leaked, on Monday evening the same New York Times reporters released another story about it, this time involving Barr: “John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser, privately told Attorney General William P. Barr last year that he had concerns that President Trump was effectively granting personal favors to the autocratic leaders of Turkey and China, according to an unpublished manuscript by Mr. Bolton. Mr. Barr responded by pointing to a pair of Justice Department investigations of companies in those countries and said he was worried that Mr. Trump had created the appearance that he had undue influence over what would typically be independent inquiries, according to the manuscript. Backing up his point, Mr. Barr mentioned conversations Mr. Trump had with the leaders, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Xi Jinping of China.”
These revelations prompted some GOP senators to call for witnesses in the impeachment trial: “I think it’s increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton,” Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, told reporters. He later told Republican colleagues at a closed-door lunch that calling witnesses would be a wise choice politically and substantively, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Trump’s defense concluded their three days of testimony on Tuesday.
Senators got to ask questions on Wednesday.
The White House claimed on Wednesday that Bolton’s book contains a lot of classified material. Bolton’s lawyers disagree.
On Friday the Senate voted not to call witnesses, with only Collins and Romney voting with the Democrats.
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Trump’s Job Approval: 43.4%