According to President Donald Trump, any chances (however slim) that congressional Democrats had of convicting him are officially dead. And as evidence of this assertion, early Wednesday evening the president unveiled a telling video clip that shall henceforth be known as Exhibit A.
Recorded last August, Exhibit A features then-National Security Adviser John Bolton speaking with Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty about the president’s phone calls last year to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
One of the calls was the allegedly controversial July 25th one in which Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart to look into credible allegations of corruption surrounding both the 2016 U.S. presidential election and former Vice President Joe Biden.
“I will be meeting President Zelensky. He and President Trump have already spoken twice. The president called to congratulate President Zelensky on his election and on his success in the parliamentary election,” Exhibit A shows Bolton saying of the calls.
“They were very warm and cordial calls. We’re hoping they’ll be able to meet in Warsaw for a few minutes together, because the success of Ukraine, maintaining its free, its system of representative government, a free-market economy free of corruption, and dealing with the problems of the Danbass in the Crimea are high priorities here, obviously, but high priorities for the United States, as well.”
Watch Exhibit A below:
GAME OVER! pic.twitter.com/yvMa6bPqfy
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2020
How does this prove the president’s assertion — “game over” — that the left’s case against him is now moot?
With every other tactic against the president having failed, in recent days congressional Democrats have placed their hopes in Bolton, who has a forthcoming memoir in which, it’s been reported, he complains about both the president’s policies toward Ukraine and his otherwise “warm and cordial” calls with Zelensky.
“Over dozens of pages, Mr. Bolton described how the Ukraine affair unfolded over several months until he departed the White House in September,” The New York Times reported Tuesday after obtaining a draft copy of the memoir.
He alleges that “after the president’s July phone call with the president of Ukraine, he raised with Attorney General William P. Barr his concerns about Mr. Giuliani, who was pursuing a shadow Ukraine policy encouraged by the president, and told Mr. Barr that the president had mentioned him on the call.”
In other words, in the book Bolton claims that he had issues with the president’s second phone call with Zelensky. Yet his statements to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty seem to contradict these claims.
The former national security adviser also reportedly describes a phone conversation he had with the president in August, the same month he went on to speak positively to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty about Trump’s Ukraine policy.
“President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens,” the Times reported.
Congressional Democrats have claimed that this temporary freezing of aid was at the center of a disputed quid pro quo demand that the president used to try to coerce Zelensky into launching investigations into the 2016 election and Biden.
The president has also disputed this claim as well:
I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that being said, the…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2020
…transcripts of my calls with President Zelensky are all the proof that is needed, in addition to the fact that President Zelensky & the Foreign Minister of Ukraine said there was no pressure and no problems. Additionally, I met with President Zelensky at the United Nations…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2020
…(Democrats said I never met) and released the military aid to Ukraine without any conditions or investigations – and far ahead of schedule. I also allowed Ukraine to purchase Javelin anti-tank missiles. My Administration has done far more than the previous Administration.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2020
These claims and rebuttals come amid an effort by the White House to throttle the publication of Bolton’s book up until the former adviser removes what the administration is claiming to be an abundance of classified material.
In a leaked letter to Bolton’s attorney sent last week, before the Times obtained a draft copy, a National Security Council official warned that the book “appears to contain significant amounts of classified information” and is thus not ready for publication.
Look:
WH letter to Bolton warning him against publication of his book as it is right now pic.twitter.com/dsICaKQuJe
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 29, 2020
The media have rushed to Bolton’s defense, arguing that his extensive experience proves that there’s no way his book would contain classified information:
Hmm, John Bolton, one of the most skilled lawyers in Washington, would write a book filled with TOP SECRET classified information? He’s done this rodeo before, so that would be highly surprising if true. https://t.co/n3YK9BKIEU
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) January 29, 2020
But critics, including some of whom have rightly noted how Democrats and their media allies used to distrust Bolton, have argued that the former adviser “has always been” untrustworthy.
“That’s who John Bolton is. That’s who John Bolton has always been. That’s what John Bolton does. And not to brag, but we called it long ago,” one critic, Tucker Carlson of Fox News, opined this week.
Listen:
(Source: Fox News)
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