Bolton Overshadows Final Day of Trump Defense Arguments

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s defense began its final arguments in the Senate impeachment trial Tuesday, but the focus of the White House and senators has already turned to a battle coming later this week over whether to call former National Security Advisor John Bolton or other witnesses to testify.

GOP leaders also attempted to tamp down sentiment for subpoenaing Bolton by arguing it’s not necessary. Still, several Republicans said the revelation in his yet-to-be published book that Trump directly linked aid for Ukraine to politically motivated investigations raised questions that should be answered.

“I think Bolton probably has something to offer us,” said Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, who is viewed as a barometer of whether there will be enough Republican votes to call witnesses. “We’ll figure out how we’re going to learn more.”

Trump attorney Jay Sekulow told senators Tuesday to ignore the leaks about Bolton’s book.

Impeachment “is not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts. That’s politics unfortunately, and Hamilton put impeachment in the hands of this body, the Senate, precisely and specifically to be above that fray,” he said.

“You cannot impeach a president on an unsourced allegation,” he said, calling the manuscript “inadmissible.”

Two Republicans, James Lankford and Lindsey Graham, suggested senators review Bolton’s manuscript in secret ahead of the crucial vote Friday on whether to call witnesses. Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called it “absurd” to read a book set for publication in March in a secure setting. He said that wouldn’t be a substitute for putting questions to Bolton under oath.

While Bolton’s testimony could be damaging to Trump’s defense -- and possibly his political fortunes in November’s election -- no Republican has suggested it would change the outcome of the trial leading to the president’s acquittal on two articles of impeachment.

‘Up in the Air’

Republican Senator John Cornyn, who has supported Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plan to quickly end the trial, said the question of witnesses is “up in the air.”

But he and other senior Republicans argued that the former Trump adviser’s testimony won’t change any opinions.

“I don’t see that he has any knowledge of anything that we don’t already know. Which is there were discussions about the aid. There were discussions about investigations,” he said. “And in both cases, the aid flowed and the investigations never occurred.”

A central element of Trump’s defense is that the House impeachment presented no first-hand evidence of Trump’s actions.

Several senators pointed to the presentation of celebrity lawyer and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who was given the Trump defense team’s prime-time slot at the end of their presentation on Monday.

“Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense,” Dershowitz said.

Among the proposals being circulated by Republicans are plans to make witnesses “reciprocal” with each side allowed to call the same number of witnesses, potentially setting the stage for testimony from Hunter Biden and former Vice President Joe Biden in the middle of the presidential primaries.

The impeachment charges alleged that Trump wanted Ukraine to initiate an investigation of the Bidens and Hunter Biden’s role on the board of a Ukrainian energy company in exchange for the release of U.S. military aid and a White House visit for Ukraine’s newly elected president.

Asking Questions

Sekulow said Trump had legitimate reasons for his actions, including asking the president of Ukraine to look into the Bidens.

“You’re going to impeach the president of the United States for asking a question?” Sekulow asked. “There was in fact a proper governmental interest in the questions that the president asked.”

House Democrats contend that claims of any wrongdoing involving the former vice president’s son amount to debunked conspiracy theories and that Trump only became interested after Joe Biden announced his presidential campaign.

Then-Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko said in a May 2019 interview with Bloomberg News that Hunter Biden “did not violate any Ukrainian laws.” Trump’s former special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, in his testimony to the House inquiry also rejected the idea that Joe Biden’s work in Ukraine was influenced by his son’s position.

Graham warned Democrats that Republicans would want to call a lot of witnesses.

‘Call Everybody’

“If you call John Bolton, we’re going to call everybody,” Graham said. That, he said, means Hunter Biden, Joe Biden and the intelligence community whistle-blower who raised alarms about Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Schumer has rejected the idea of a “deal” that would tie calling the Bidens to testify in return for Bolton or acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, but he said Tuesday that the Republicans have the votes to subpoena whoever they want. He warned, however, that Republicans would look “very, very bad” if their witnesses are simply trying to distract the public from the truth.

Schumer said calling Hunter Biden is a distraction and “an intentional misdirection” the Republicans are pulling out because “they have no one to defend the president on merit.”

”What can Hunter Biden tell us about the president’s obstruction of Congress? Nothing, obviously,” Schumer said.

Iowa Caucuses

Democrats also argue that dragging Biden into the trial is a purely political move to damage the former vice president as numerous polls show he could beat Trump in the November election. The first contest in the Democratic nomination race, the Iowa caucuses, is next Monday.

The political aspect of involving Biden was illustrated by Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst, who said Monday that she’s “really interested to see how this discussion today informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those Democratic caucus-goers.”

Biden, campaigning in Muscatine, Iowa, said Ernst’s remarks show that Republicans are using the impeachment trial to harm his bid for the presidential nomination.

“She spilled the beans,” Biden told reporters. “The whole impeachment trial for Trump is just a political hit job to try to smear me because he is scared to death of running against me.”

After Trump’s attorneys wrap their presentation, the Senate is expected to adjourn for the day. Beginning Wednesday, senators will get to ask up to 16 hours of questions -- a process that is expected to take two days. That would set up a Friday debate and vote on whether to seek new witnesses and documents.

--With assistance from Billy House, Erik Wasson, Laura Davison and Tyler Pager.

To contact the reporters on this story: Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.net;Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net;Daniel Flatley in Washington at dflatley1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo

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