Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton's new book says the House impeachment inquiry should have investigated Donald Trump not only for abusing his political power in Ukraine, but for other instances when Trump intervened in law enforcement matters for personal gain.
John Bolton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington, 2006. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
The Justice Department is suing Bolton to block release of the book.
The book, “The Room Where It Happened,” was obtained by The New York Times “in advance of its scheduled publication next Tuesday and has already become a political lightning rod in the thick of an election campaign and a No. 1 best seller on Amazon.com even before it hits the bookstores,” writes Peter Baker at the New York Times:
Mr. Bolton describes several episodes where the president expressed willingness to halt criminal investigations “to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked,” citing cases involving major firms in China and Turkey. “The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn’t accept,” Mr. Bolton writes, adding that he reported his concerns to Attorney General William P. Barr.
Mr. Bolton also adds a striking new allegation by saying that Mr. Trump overtly linked trade negotiations to his own political fortunes by asking President Xi Jinping of China to buy a lot of American agricultural products to help him win farm states in this year’s election. Mr. Trump, he writes, was “pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win. He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome.”
(...) The Justice Department filed a last-minute lawsuit against Mr. Bolton this week seeking to stop publication even as Mr. Trump’s critics complained that Mr. Bolton should have come forward during impeachment proceedings rather than save his account for a $2 million book contract.
Never forget, Bolton was involved in Cambridge Analytica.
I’m trying to calculate the level of cynicism it takes to admonish the House while also refusing to testify before it.
— Tom Maxwell (@universalshow) June 17, 2020
Folks should read this story from @peterbakernyt on the new @AmbJohnBolton book, but as a completely irrelevant aside @nytimes picked the perfect Jim from the office photo pic.twitter.com/posv0mAsUQ
— Zachary Fryer-Biggs (@ZachFB) June 17, 2020
And of course, don't forget that Bolton could have said all of this under oath or simply in interviews back in January when the impeachment inquiry was ongoing > https://t.co/BBDpdcmYqd
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 17, 2020
The New York Times has obtained a copy of @AmbJohnBolton's book, "The Room Where It Happened." https://t.co/EJj0hctAfh
— David Gura (@davidgura) June 17, 2020
Is there a word for "Powerful, well-placed person who sees firsthand that the President routinely commits impeachable offenses, yet refuses to testify, but then does a book when it's too late"? https://t.co/ZWVU8hRP2B
— Elie Honig (@eliehonig) June 17, 2020
Bolton's book contains the shocking revelation that Trump is exactly what he appears to be & behaves exactly the way he has always behaved. https://t.co/UCCqusQ9tn
— David Roberts (@drvox) June 17, 2020
