Bolton Claims Trump Tied Ukraine Aid to Biden Corruption Probes in Upcoming Book
Former White House national security adviser John Bolton asserts in his upcoming book that President Trump told him military aid to Ukraine would be conditioned on the country’s commitment to investigate corruption allegations against Joe and Hunter Biden, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
The completed manuscript was submitted to the White House on December 30 for a standard review process to check for classified information and the book is scheduled to be released on March 17.
“It is clear, regrettably, from the New York Times article published today that the pre-publication review process has been corrupted and that information has been disclosed by persons other than those properly involved in reviewing the manuscript,” Bolton’s lawyer Charles J. Cooper said in a statement on Sunday.
President Trump denied the allegation contained in the manuscript.
“I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.”
Senate Democrats seized on the report to call for Bolton to testify in the Senate impeachment trial.
“The [New York Times] report suggests multiple top Trump Admin officials knew the facts and deliberately misled Congress and the American people,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) wrote on Twitter. “All we need is four Republican Senators to get the truth.”
The Senate will vote this week on whether to call witnesses to testify in the trial. In order to gain a majority, Democrats need four Republican Senators to vote with them to approve the calling of witnesses.
