Bolton and the Impeachment Process

By: Irene Kim

With Trump being the 3rd president in the United States to ever be impeached, a large majority of the news coverage surrounds his impeachment. However, recently, a huge leak, described as a “New York Times bombshell,” has occurred. John Bolton, Trump’s former national security advisor, was discovered to have been writing a book called “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.” It summarizes many of what Bolton saw himself while coordinating and working directly with Trump throughout the circumstances with Ukraine. New York Times was able to obtain a draft manuscript for his book which mentioned that Trump had asked him to condition Ukraine security assistance on investigations into former Vice President and 2020 candidate Joe Biden. More specifically, the manuscript describes Trump directing Bolton to ask the Ukrainian president to meet with Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani. 

As soon as this news appeared, many of the Democrats especially wanted Bolton to testify and see Bolton’s manuscript. On the other hand, Trump’s defense team argued strongly against it. For instance, Trump’s lawyer Dershowitz said, “”Let me repeat: Nothing in the Bolton revelations — even if true — would rise to the level of an abuse of power or impeachable offense.” Many Republican senators also supported Dershowitz. Senator John Corwyn said, “Democrats have a credibility problem.”

Although the book is scheduled to release in March, the White House is extremely opposed to it. Bolton may face many legal obstacles. The National Security Council warned Bolton’s attorney that it would need revision, as it had “significant amounts of classified material.” Officials said the White House would use its resources to delay the publication of the book as much as possible. Other books, such as “Holding the Line: Inside Trump’s Pentagon with Secretary Mattis,” had also been delayed up to six months by the Defense Department for a security review. It was allowed to be published only after a suit was filed against the department for blocking the author’s publication. 

With a Republican majority Senate, the Senate has evidently voted to not bring witnesses in for trial; it would stain their reputation as well as Trump’s. However, it is undeniable that Bolton’s evidence and outspokenness has caused disarray in the impeachment process.