Bolton Was Alarmed By Giuliani’s Pressure On Ukraine

The New York Times reports:

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.

Newsweek reports:

According to Hill’s testimony, Bolton told her to tell the National Security Council’s attorney: “I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up,” having earlier said in a conversation with her: “Giuliani’s a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up.”

During 10 hours of testimony on Monday, Hill, who was previously the White House’s top Russia expert, described Giuliani and those close to him as attempting to run their own foreign policy plans, The Times reported. Sondland is set to testify on Thursday.

When John Bolton emerges as the hero of the story, you know the rest of the cast are some real next level villains. https://t.co/UUrAq39ITo

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) October 15, 2019

Genie: “You still have one wish left.”
Me: “Come up with a scandal so awful that John Bolton is actually the hero.”
Genie: “You’re one sick bastard, but okay.” https://t.co/RSsI5Qgqe1

— Seth Masket (@smotus) October 15, 2019

This plot twist, where John Bolton turns out to be good, really strains the credibility of this entire season.

— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) October 15, 2019

Who knew that John Bolton would turn out to be the Severus Snape of this whole thing?

— Andrei Cherny (@AndreiCherny) October 15, 2019