The jig is up: Bolton and Mulvaney have no excuse for not testifying
On Monday, a federal judge dismissed a case brought by Charles Kupperman, a former deputy national security adviser, asserting an “absolute immunity” to protect him from testifying. Both the House Judiciary Committee, which withdrew the subpoena so as not to stall impeachment proceedings, and the White House, which did not want an adverse ruling, requested the case be dismissed as moot. The subpoena was withdrawn, impeachment proceeded without Kupperman, and Kupperman’s failure to appear was not included in the article of impeachment concerning obstruction. Judge Richard J. Leon agreed with the Justice Department and the White House, ordering the case dismissed.
That leaves a ruling by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson rejecting in scathing terms a similar claim of “absolute immunity” in a case involving former White House counsel Donald McGahn as the final word, for now, on current and former executive branch employees’ testimony.
Former national security adviser John Bolton, who shares a lawyer with Kupperman, had previously stated that he would rely on the outcome of the Kupperman case to decide whether to testify. (Bolton claims he wants to testify but needs direction from the courts, unlike his subordinates who performed their civic responsibility by responding to a legally sufficient subpoena.)
Bolton can no longer rely on the Kupperman case, and the relevant precedent is now the McGahn case. What then is his excuse to remain silent (other than a lucrative book deal)? As former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, appearing on “The Beat” with Ari Melber on MSNBC on Monday night, argued, “the bottom line is that John Bolton now has no rock to hide behind anymore, and that he really should testify.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/12/31/jig-is-up-bolton-mulvaney-others-must-testify/
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