Former national security adviser John Bolton, who clashed with Trump administration officials over withholding aide to Ukraine, said Monday he would testify if subpoenaed during the president’s Senate impeachment trial.
“The House has concluded its constitutional responsibility by adopting articles of impeachment related to the Ukraine matter. It now falls to the Senate to fulfill its constitutional obligation to try impeachments, and it does not appear possible that a final judicial resolution of the still-unanswered constitutional questions can be obtained before the Senate acts,” Bolton said in a statement.
“Accordingly, since my testimony is once again at issue, I have had to resolve the serious competing issues as best I could, based on careful consideration and study. I have concluded that, if the Senate issues a subpoena for my testimony, I am prepared to testify.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has delayed forwarding the articles of impeachment to the Senate because she wanted to ensure what she called a fair process.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has publicly expressed resistance to calling new witnesses in the trial, though Democrats are pressing to hear from Bolton and others who did not appear before the House’s inquiry in the upcoming proceedings and were not issued subpoenas.
It would take 51 votes in the Senate to issue a subpoena for Bolton or other potential witnesses, which means four GOP senators would have to defy the White House and party leadership to vote for the subpoenas.
Republicans control 53 seats, while the Dems have 45, as well as two Independents who caucus with the Democrats.
The House launched impeachment hearings after learning of a whistleblower’s report that the president during a July 25 call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky asked him to launch probes into Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden and his son Hunter as well as the 2016 presidential election.
At the time, the president was withholding $391 million in military aid to the country as it fought Russian-backed separatists.
The House voted mostly along party lines to impeach Trump for abuse of power for allegedly using his office for personal political gain, and for obstruction of Congress for failing to cooperate in the House probe.
Trump has repeatedly insisted that he did nothing wrong, and the aid was released Sept. 11 after a bipartisan Congressional outcry.
