Bolton doubles down on Trump obstruction claims amid bipartisan backlash
Former national security adviser John Bolton said in an interview with ABC News that aired Sunday that he saw "evidence" that obstructing justice was a way of life for President Donald Trump.
"These were things that I could see some evidence of," he said, expanding upon the claim from his soon-to-be-released book "The Room Where It Happened." "And they bothered me greatly. I talked to the Attorney General about them. I talked to Counsel to the President about them. I've talked to other members of the cabinet about them and relayed my concerns. And they were very much on my mind."
Bolton added that Trump once said to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan regarding a case involving a Turkish bank in the U.S., "look those prosecutors in New York are Obama people."
"'Wait until I get my people in, and then we'll take care of this,'" Bolton recalled. "And I thought to myself — and I'm a Department of Justice alumnus myself — I've never heard any president say anything like that, ever."
Bolton's full interview is set to air Sunday evening.
In Bolton's 494-page book set to be released this week, the former national security adviser alleges that Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to agree to trade policies that would help with his re-election in November as well as offering his own approval for concentration camps to detain Uighurs, a group of Muslims living in China. (Trump on Wednesday signed a law aimed at addressing human rights abuses of Uighurs.)
Bolton describes Trump as employing "obstruction of justice as a way of life" and who made decisions based purely on what they meant for his re-election.
Democrats on Sunday chastised Bolton for not coming forward sooner with the eye-opening claims he filled his book with while Trump officials said he is simply a disgruntled former employee who one staffer said should be in jail.
Speaking with CNN's "State of the Union," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said his committee has no interest in calling Bolton to testify, adding that he believes Trump "has done a lot of impeachable things, including what Bolton is talking about."
"But we have an election coming up," Nadler said. "We know the Republicans in the Senate will not entertain an impeachment in any event. So that would be — that would, at this point, be a waste of time and effort."
Responding to Bolton's claim that Democrats engaged in malpractice by limiting Trump's impeachment to his actions toward Ukraine, Nadler said Bolton "who has, as we now know, evidence that he could have offered and refused to offer, is certainly no one to talk."
On NBC's "Meet the Press," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Bolton's allegations are not surprising, adding that Bolton "indicts himself, for cowardice and for greed" and that it "was only the greed that made him come forward in this book."
Schiff said his committee will determine within the next two days whether they will seek to have Bolton testify before the panel.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called Bolton "a political opportunist and a profiteer" in an interview with ABC's "This Week."
Republicans also took issue with Bolton's book. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told "This Week" that he wished Bolton "would have come into the House under oath and testified."
"One of the things about making allegations in a book for $29.95, certainly is going to be a best-seller, I'm sure," he said. "The problem is that when you're not selling it in a book, you're not putting yourself in a position to be cross-examined."
Trump has accused Bolton of publishing classified information. But the president has also accused Bolton of making up "lies & fake stories," calling him a "disgruntled boring fool."
Peter Navarro, Trump's top trade adviser, told "State of the Union" that Trump asking China to boost his re-election was "a John Bolton fantasy," adding he "never heard that."
Navarro said Bolton "should be turning in his seersucker suit for an orange jumpsuit."
Speaking with "Fox News Sunday," Mercedes Schlapp, a senior adviser to Trump's campaign, called Bolton "disgruntled" because Trump didn't listen to his hawkish advice.
Host Chris Wallace pointed to a number of former officials, like ex-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and chief of staff John Kelly, who have taken issue with the president and that Trump has lambasted.
"These are individuals who did not agree with the president's policies when it came to foreign policy in general," Schlapp said. "And so, at the end of the day, it's not Rex Tillerson or John Kelly or Sec. Mattis who makes these decisions. It's President Trump and President Trump is going to listen to his advisers, but he's the ultimate decision-maker when it comes to foreign policy."
