Testimony from John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney in the Senate Trial of President Donald J. Trump
John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney were at the very center of the President’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to interfere in the US elections. Bolton was apparently trying to persuade the President to engage with Ukraine, to release their Congressionally authorized military aid, to invite their President to the White House without the Biden investigations. While, on the other hand, Mulvaney apparently was deeply involved in the effort to trade Ukrainian investigations of the Bidens for a White House meeting and release of US military assistance and played a key role in the President’s pressure campaign on the newly elected and inexperienced Ukrainian President.
No one knows what they would testify if subpoenaed by the Senate. President Trump has ordered both not to testify, and they have complied with respect to the House impeachment inquiry. Ambassador Bolton has now expressed a willingness to testify if subpoenaed by the Senate. The President and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell are doing everything they can to block their testimony. It will take at least four Republican votes to call them as witnesses.
What will they say? No one knows. Ambassador Bolton is known for his hard line views on North Korea, Iran and Russia. He is a very loyal Republican, but he may be ready to discuss the President’s role and actions. In large measure, we already know the President’s role and actions, and it is not a pretty picture; however Bolton was in the room with the President at crucial moments and apparently tried unsuccessfully on one or more occasions to dissuade the President from the conduct that led to his impeachment; Bolton could give additional insights and information either exonerating or implicating the President. Bolton is a hard line hawk on relations with Russia – a position at variance with the President who is notoriously soft on Putin. Whether that plays into his willingness to testify and the content of his testimony no one knows.
Mulvaney, on the other hand, is completely loyal to and in sync with the President. It appears that he was all in on the Ukraine game with the President and Rudy Giuliani from the very beginning. He may have tried to persuade the President to release the congressionally approved military aid without success; he certainly did everything within his powers to implement the President’s schemes and desires. Will he tell the truth under oath and how much of it? That too is a complete unknown. It has not escaped anyone’s notice in our nation’s capital how many of the President’s associates went to jail for their lies to the FBI with respect to the Trump/Putin relationship and the Russian interference during and after the 2016 campaign.
It is critical that the underlying documents with respect to the Ukraine decisions be released and disclosed to Congressional investigators. It is extremely difficult to examine and cross-examine an evasive or elusive witness without access to their documents.
Leader McConnell is doing everything in his power to shield the President and tilt the Senate trial rules to the President’s liking. Essentially the President wants no testimonial or documentary evidence admitted, and he wants a dismissal without the embarrassments of a trial. If, however, Leader McConnell goes too far in helping to cover-up the President’s actions and creating an unfair and blatantly dishonest trial process in the Senate, he will expose his vulnerable Republican colleagues to electoral consequences in November. He is better off allowing the witness testimony and relevant documents even if they are embarrassing to the President, as he knows full well there are not 67 votes to remove the President from office.
Prepared by: Lucien Wulsin
Dated: 1/22/20