Ex-Trump Adviser Bolton Asked to Testify in Impeachment Inquiry

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton has been asked to testify to the House committees leading the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Bolton, who was ousted from the White House last month, has been requested to appear but was not subpoenaed, and it’s unclear how he’ll respond. He would be a key witness to the events in the White House surrounding the administration’s interactions with the new government in Ukraine.

Multiple witnesses have told the committees that Bolton expressed open contempt for efforts by some members of the Trump administration and the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to seek politically motivated investigations in Ukraine that are now at the heart of the House investigation.

Bolton’s departure from the White House was acrimonious. Trump said at the time he fired his national security adviser after disagreeing “strongly” with many of his positions. Bolton contradicted the president on Twitter, saying that he had offered to resign.

Bolton spokeswoman Sarah Tinsley declined to comment when asked if he would appear.

Bolton sent an email to supporters last week that included veiled criticism of Trump’s foreign policy. But the email also criticized Democrats, saying the U.S. commitment to national security is “under attack from within” through impeachment and “radicalized Democrats.”

Bolton was asked to appear on Nov. 7. Also asked to testify are NSC attorney John Eisenberg and White House NSC legal adviser Michael Ellis, who have both been requested to appear on Nov. 4, the person said.

July Meeting

In previous hearings, both William Taylor, the current U.S. envoy to Ukraine, and former National Security Council aide Fiona Hill, said an irritated Bolton abruptly ended a July 10 White House meeting with a representative of Ukraine’s government after Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, “connected ‘investigations’ with an Oval Office meeting” sought by Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Hill said that Bolton described the effort to force Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political opponents as a “drug deal.” Bolton directed Hill to brief NSC lawyers about the scheme, she and Taylor testified. And Bolton opposed arranging the July 25 call between Trump and Zelenskiy, predicting it “would be a disaster,” Taylor testified.

In the call, Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate a conspiracy theory about the 2016 U.S. election as well as Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, after the Ukrainian president thanked him for American military aid and asked for additional anti-tank missiles to combat Russia-backed separatists.

Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who works on the National Security Council, said in his prepared testimony Tuesday that the call was just one of the instances he witnessed in which Trump administration officials conditioned aid to Ukraine on that country agreeing to investigate Biden’s dealings with Ukraine.

Amid those discussions, the Trump administration was holding up aid to Ukraine that had been appropriated by Congress.

Biden’s son Hunter sat on the board of Burisma Group, one of the country’s biggest private gas companies. As vice president, Biden pursued an anti-corruption policy in Ukraine in 2016 that included a call for the resignation of the country’s top prosecutor.

Bolton’s lawyer also represents Charles Kupperman, who was Bolton’s deputy on the NSC. Kupperman declined to show up for a scheduled deposition Monday after the White House instructed him not to do so. He has filed a legal action in federal court in Washington for guidance on whether he was legally required to appear.

--With assistance from Nick Wadhams and Justin Sink.

To contact the reporter on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net

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

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