Politico got a leak of parts of John Bolton’s forthcoming book “The Room Where It Happened.” Bolton is the former national security adviser who worked for, and then left, the Trump administration. Notably, he said the he would not voluntarily testify before the House impeachment inquiry into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. As noted by CNN, “The House Intelligence committee did not issue a subpoena to John Bolton after his attorney threatened to go to court to fight if it was issued, according to a House Intelligence Committee official.” The House feared, correctly I think, that the matter would be tied up in court past the time that the impeachment process needed to move forward.
Bolton’s book, a memoir of his time in the White House, seems to rip Trump as a corrupt and Incompetent president. So OK, Bolton wanted to do his tell-all thing and make some money. But damn it, this is too much too little too late.
The Politico article states
In his book, Bolton “argues that the House committed impeachment malpractice by keeping their prosecution focused narrowly on Ukraine when Trump’s Ukraine-like transgressions existed across the full range of his foreign policy,” Simon & Schuster said — promising that Bolton “documents exactly what those were, and attempts by him and others in the administration to raise alarms about them.”
If that’s what Bolton thinks, then why didn't he testify with all the details during the impeachment process? Why didn’t he volunteer to testify if subpoenaed, as did Fiona Hill, the foreign policy specialist who worked under him, and gave damning testimony concerning Trump under oath?
Bolton is either a coward who was afraid to invoke the wrath of Trump and the GOP, or an opportunist who who refused to talk because he wanted to save it all for his book and future book sales. Perhaps both things are true.
Where would we be if Trump was impeached, and Pence was president? Could Pence do worse in his response to the COVID-19 crisis and the press for racial equality than Trump?... I don’t think anybody could do worse. This is not an endorsement of Pence, it’s an assessment of how bad Trump is.
Some will say Bolton’s failure to testify is more akin to treason than anything. That’s a serious charge. But it is a fact that when the country needed him to tell the truth about Trump’s “transgressions” to Congress in real time (not buy-my-book-later time), Bolton said “call my lawyer.” He failed this country, his country. I will never buy his book.