House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff took a jab at former national security adviser John Bolton while teasing the possibility of having him testify in lawmakers’ impeachment proceedings.
“We’ve certainly been in touch with his lawyer, and what we’ve been informed by his lawyer, because we invited him, and he did not choose to come in and testify, and notwithstanding the fact that his deputy Fiona Hill and his other deputy Colonel Vindman and Tim Morrison and others have shown the courage to come in is, if we subpoena him, they will sue us in court,” Schiff said during Sunday’s State of the Union.
He added, “Now, he will have to explain one day if he maintains that position why he wanted to wait to put it in a book instead of telling the American people what he knew when it really mattered to the country.”
Whether or not Bolton is “compelled” to testify “doesn’t relieve him of the obligation right now to show the courage that Dr. Hill did,” according to Schiff.
“She was told not to come in,” he explained. “She was told if she came in to testify, it could contravene this privilege or that privilege. She made the decision this is the right thing to do, John Bolton should make the same decision.”
Joining Meet the Press the same morning, Schiff was asked again about having Bolton testify and repeated his call for the former national security adviser to drum up the “courage” to.
“Now, people like John Bolton, whose deputies had the courage to come in and testify, are going to have to answer one day why they saved what they knew for a book rather than tell the country when the country needed to know,” he said. “But, I do think that when it comes to documents and witnesses, that if it comes to a trial, and again we’re getting far down the road here, that the chief justice will have to make a decision on request for witnesses and documents.”
Bolton was invited to testify in the impeachment proceedings earlier last month but failed to show up for his scheduled closed-door deposition. His lawyer, however, has teased that he has knowledge about “many relevant meetings and conversations” related to Ukraine that lawmakers have not already been told.
The former national security adviser, however, reportedly secured a $2 million book deal with Simon & Schuster.
