Trump Told Bolton to Help His Ukraine Pressure Campaign, Book Says

[Dennis Donovan]

Source: NYT

The president asked his national security adviser last spring in front of other senior advisers to pave the way for a meeting between Rudolph Giuliani and Ukraine’s new leader.

By Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt
Jan. 31, 2020, 12:00 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — More than two months before he asked Ukraine’s president to investigate his political opponents, President Trump directed John R. Bolton, then his national security adviser, to help with his pressure campaign to extract damaging information on Democrats from Ukrainian officials, according to an unpublished manuscript by Mr. Bolton.

Mr. Trump gave the instruction, Mr. Bolton wrote, during an Oval Office conversation in early May that included the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, the president’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, who is now leading the president’s impeachment defense.

Mr. Trump told Mr. Bolton to call Volodymyr Zelensky, who had recently won election as president of Ukraine, to ensure Mr. Zelensky would meet with Mr. Giuliani, who was planning a trip to Ukraine to discuss the investigations that the president sought, in Mr. Bolton’s account. Mr. Bolton never made the call, he wrote.

The previously undisclosed directive that Mr. Bolton describes would be the earliest known instance of Mr. Trump seeking to harness the power of the United States government to advance his pressure campaign against Ukraine, as he later did on the July call with Mr. Zelensky that triggered a whistle-blower complaint and impeachment proceedings. House Democrats have accused him of abusing his authority and are arguing their case before senators in the impeachment trial of Mr. Trump, whose lawyers have said he did nothing wrong.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/us/politics/trump-bolton-ukraine.html

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This is huge!! This opens up the caper timeline to even EARLIER than previously known.

[kag]

1. Thanks for posting this.

I'm sitting here watching the MSNBC panel discuss it, and yeah, it appears to be HUGE.

Bolton implicates Pat Cipollone. Wow.

[lagomorph777]

15. Schiff read this report aloud right in front of Cipollone, in the Senate well.

Cipollone apparently shat his pants, judging by his shocked expression.

[dalton99a]

2. Yep.

Mr. Bolton described the roughly 10-minute conversation in drafts of his book, a memoir of his time as national security adviser that is to go on sale in March. Over several pages, Mr. Bolton laid out Mr. Trump’s fixation on Ukraine and the president’s belief, based on a mix of scattershot events, assertions and outright conspiracy theories, that Ukraine tried to undermine his chances of winning the presidency in 2016.

As he began to realize the extent and aims of the pressure campaign, Mr. Bolton began to object, he wrote in the book, affirming the testimony of a former National Security Council aide, Fiona Hill, who had said that Mr. Bolton warned that Mr. Giuliani was “a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up.”

The Oval Office conversation that Mr. Bolton described came as the president and Mr. Giuliani were increasingly focusing on pushing the Ukrainian government to commit to investigations that could help Mr. Trump politically. At various points, Mr. Trump, Mr. Giuliani and their associates pressed Ukrainian officials under Mr. Zelensky and his predecessor to provide potentially damaging information on the president’s rivals, including Mr. Biden and Ukrainians who Mr. Trump’s allies believed tried to help Hillary Clinton in 2016.

At the time of the Oval Office conversation Mr. Bolton wrote about, Mr. Giuliani was planning a trip to Kyiv to push the incoming government to commit to the investigations. Mr. Giuliani asserted that the president had been wronged by the Justice Department’s Russia investigation and told associates that the inquiry could be partly discredited by proving that parts of it originated with suspect documents produced and disseminated in Ukraine to undermine his onetime campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, whose work in Ukraine became a central focus of the Russia inquiry.

[empedocles]

3. Switching 'twixt MSNBC & CNN, sense of commentators is, this is huge, and a Senator reminder that

Bolton has a whole bookload of information to put out puzzle pieces one by one - and seems to be savvy about he does it.

Much talk of putting the 'leader' push, off until Saturday - at least. Wednesday is talked about.
[Seems like next Dem tactic is get delay past superbowl trump victory lap].

Santorum flatly says 'given this President', [implying you don't know what trump will say next], [leader] wants no delay'. However, Thursday is the day the Senate gets things done. Fridays usually not good. [Also, until they vote, Senators can have second thoughts. Murkowski still has not spoken. Toomey came out with trump behavior was 'wrong'].

Interesting thing I heard on MSNBC weeks ago from a former McConnell aide, who said with a knowing kind of slight smile, [best as I recall], the Senator [leader] is well aware of how the processes evolve, and will 'react' with the process over time. Those remarks have resonated with me.

[gab13by13]

4. Moscow Mitch is panicking

Reports that there will be no vote today. We need a Ted Kennedy right now, or an Al Franken.

Someone, I guess Schiff, needs to blow his top. Cippilone was in on it and lied in the trial, he needs to lose his law license or worse.

Schiff should have run for president, is it too late? He would unite Democrats.

[Duppers]

20. 👍

[TeamPooka]

5. Mitch and all his corrupt GOP Senators will not care. The cover up is in full force.

[gab13by13]

6. Claire McCaskill is saying that Repubs are afraid of the blowback

of Trump gloating at the state of the union.

Trump also can't be happy with Republicans rationale; he is guilty but not enough to impeach him. Trump will be furious over that because he will not be exonerated.

[earthside]

7. Bolton's Legacy

Bolton, himself, has just a very few hours to avoid being placed in the 'Profiles in Cowardice' hall of fame.

Whether he is subpoenaed or not, if he has critical information he has a patriotic and moral duty to speak out now.

[wishstar]

8. Biden announced his candidacy April 25th so this drug deal was concocted right after that

[H2O Man]

9. Holy shit!

Recommended.

[Dennis Donovan]

10. Bolton's flying an A-10, little strategic bursts of cannon fire here and there

...but I'm betting he has under-wing ordinance that he's waiting to drop. Just hope he not coordinating it with his book-drop.

[H2O Man]

11. When discussing Bolton with my son

last week, he said, "Fuck that hedgehog. He just wants to be remembered as a complicated man, rather than a fucking war criminal." I understand that feeling. But at my age, I've learned that it can be a good thing when specimens like Trump and Bolton fight. I do not like or respect Bolton, and could never mistake him for being on our side. But I recognize he is intelligent, mean, and looking to serverely damage Trump.

[Dennis Donovan]

13. Nicolle Wallace knew him from the W days and praised his intelligence and organization

She implied that's what makes him dangerous. If I were Trump, I wouldn't want him as a foe.

[riversedge]

19. It is obvious that there is no love lost between Bolton and Trump

[blakstoneranger]

12. TRUMP IS RESPONDING WITH A LIE

Trump went on tv to say that bolton is lying! There were witnesses in the room--THERE WERE WITNESSES. Trump really expect the American people to believe that bolton would tell a lie that big knowing there were witnesses! This is how stupid trump thinks we are. He thinks all he has to do is run to foxnews and lie. HE WON'T TESTIFY UNDER OATH, BUT HE'LL GO TO FOXNEWS AND LIE. And he thinks we're stupid enough to take his word, the word of a known and proven liar, over the word of 2-dozen or more people. Man, what kind of world are we living in. The republicans want trump to be a DICK-tator. Well they're half way there!

[maxsolomon]

18. He knows everyone knows he's lying, and they won't do anything about it.

This is the power of the Autocrat.

America = Fucked.

[Bayard]

14. DAMMITT!!

Bolton needs to do an interview TODAY to get some of this stuff out on the airwaves, and put extreme pressure on the witness vote.

Stop dancing around! It's about to be too late, Yosemite Sam Bolton!

[maxsolomon]

17. Subpoena his ass the minute the Senate acquits.

Put Bolton through the Federal court slow-walk, too, and IMPEACH TRUMP AGAIN.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

21. K&R