Bolton Objected to Ukraine Pressure Campaign, Calling Giuliani 'a Hand Grenade'
Source: nytimes
Published Oct. 14, 2019 Updated Oct. 15, 2019, 6:11 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — The effort to pressure Ukraine for political help provoked a heated confrontation inside the White House last summer that so alarmed John R. Bolton, then the national security adviser, that he told an aide to alert White House lawyers, House investigators were told on Monday.
Mr. Bolton got into a tense exchange on July 10 with Gordon D. Sondland, the Trump donor turned ambassador to the European Union, who was working with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, to press Ukraine to investigate Democrats, according to three people who heard the testimony.
The aide, Fiona Hill, testified that Mr. Bolton told her to notify the chief lawyer for the National Security Council about a rogue effort by Mr. Sondland, Mr. Giuliani and Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, according to the people familiar with the testimony.
“I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up,” Mr. Bolton, a Yale-trained lawyer, told Ms. Hill to tell White House lawyers, according to two people at the deposition. (Another person in the room initially said Mr. Bolton referred to Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Mulvaney, but two others said he cited Mr. Sondland.)
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The testimony revealed in a powerful way just how divisive Mr. Giuliani’s efforts to extract damaging information about Democrats from Ukraine on President Trump’s behalf were within the White House. Ms. Hill, the senior director for European and Russian affairs, testified that Mr. Giuliani and his allies circumvented the usual national security process to run their own foreign policy efforts, leaving the president’s official advisers aware of the rogue operation yet powerless to stop it............................
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/us/politics/bolton-giuliani-fiona-hill-testimony.html
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Subpoenas and Requests for Evidence
in the Trump Impeachment Inquiry
By Weiyi Cai and Alicia ParlapianoUpdated Oct. 14, 2019, 2:10 p.m. ET
House Democrats have been issuing near-daily requests or subpoenas for documents and witness testimony as a part of their impeachment investigation into President Trump. The White House announced that it would not cooperate with the inquiry, but despite the administration's orders, some current State Department employees have decided to comply with the House's requests.
Complied with requests
Fiona Hill
Former Trump adviser on Russia
Marie L. Yovanovitch
Former ambassador to Ukraine
Joseph Maguire
Acting director of national intelligence
Kurt D. Volker
Former special envoy to Ukraine
Have not complied
:
The White House
Mike Pompeo
Secretary of state
T. Ulrich Brechbuhl
State Department counselor
Igor Fruman
Giuliani associate
Lev Parnas
Giuliani associate
Pending
Gordon D. Sondland
Ambassador to the E.U.
George P. Kent
Deputy assistant secretary of state
Rick Perry
Energy secretary
Rudolph W. Giuliani
Trump’s personal lawyer
Mike Pence
Vice president
Mark T. Esper
Defense secretary
Russell T. Vought
Acting budget director
Semyon Kislin
Giuliani associate
The impeachment investigation was launched after a whistle-blower complaint alleged that President Trump abused his power for political gain by pressuring Ukraine’s president to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/04/us/politics/president-trump-impeachment-inquiry.html
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