October 30, 2019

House Democrats Ask John Bolton to Testify in Impeachment Inquiry

Viktor Tolochko/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Congressional investigators have asked John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, to testify next week as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

The New York Times and the Daily Beast reported on Wednesday that House Democrats summoned Bolton for a voluntary deposition on November 7.

Witnesses in the impeachment inquiry have described Bolton as alarmed by the aggressive efforts of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and EU ambassador Gordon Sondland to pressure Ukraine into investigating Trump’s domestic political rivals. Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top Russia adviser, testified that Bolton told her to tell the National Security Council’s top attorney about the back-channeling. “Giuliani’s a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up,” Hill said Bolton told her.

Trump pushed Bolton, a hardline foreign policy hawk, out of the administration in September amid major policy disagreements.

A spokesperson for House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) declined to comment bout the deposition request. It’s unclear whether Bolton will comply with it. Investigators have also called on former top NSC attorney John Eisenberg and a deputy, Michael Ellis, for voluntary depositions on November 4.  

Update: John Bolton’s attorney Charles Cooper says the former national security adviser won’t show up to testify voluntarily. 

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate