Former national security adviser John Bolton issued a statement saying he would testify in the Senate impeachment hearing should he be subpoenaed.
“I have concluded that, if the Senate issues a subpoena for my testimony, I am prepared to testify,” the former Trump adviser said in the statement Monday.
The announcement from Bolton, who left his position in September before knowledge of a phone call between President Trump and the Ukrainian president became public, is a divergence from his previous decision not to comply with impeachment proceedings. He had previously been blocked from testifying by the White House.
Bolton, 71, is considered to have inside information, as the president’s national security adviser for more than a year, regarding Trump pressuring Ukrainian government officials to investigate his political opponent Joe Biden.
One of Bolton’s former aides, Fiona Hill, said that Bolton referred to Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani as “a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up.” Hill made the claim during her testimony in the House impeachment hearings. Bolton also allegedly said, “I am not part of whatever drug deal [Gordon] Sondland and [Mick] Mulvaney are cooking up.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell now faces difficult questions, because he and the Senate Republicans have refused to allow additional witness testimony in the Senate impeachment trial. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to hand the articles of impeachment over to the Senate until she hears terms of a trial that she deems fair. With the knowledge that Bolton would testify if subpoenaed, McConnell will have to decide if he should be heard from, even if it comes at the detriment of the president.
[Opinion: John Bolton has patriotic duty to testify to the House]
