President Trump argued testimony from administration officials in his impeachment trial would be a risk to national security.
Democrats have pushed for former national security adviser John Bolton to testify about Trump’s conduct in the Ukraine affair. Bolton said he was willing to appear before Congress if subpoenaed, but the White House has indicated it would move to block his testimony.
Trump said Wednesday that he “would rather” have Bolton appear, but “the problem with John is that it’s a national security problem.”
“He knows some of my thoughts. He knows what I think about leaders. What happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader, and it’s not very positive, and then I have to deal on behalf of the country? It’s going to be very hard. It’s going to make the job very hard. He knows other things. And I don’t know if we left on the best of terms. I would say probably not,” he said at a news conference in Davos, Switzerland.
The president also said he would “love” to have Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testify and that former Energy Secretary Rick Perry has asked him if he could testify.
“But again, that’s a national security problem,” Trump said.
Bolton left the White House in September after clashing with Trump on major foreign policy issues, including Iran and North Korea. His former aide, Fiona Hill, testified to the House that Bolton opposed the Ukraine pressure campaign, saying he wanted no part of what he described as a “drug deal” that fellow administration officials were “cooking up.”
Trump and his allies urged Ukraine to open an investigation into 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company while his father was vice president.
Bolton is expected to expand on “at least some of what he saw” in regards to Trump pressuring Ukraine in his forthcoming book.
