President Trump strongly indicated he will try to block former national security adviser John Bolton from testifying in a Senate impeachment trial that could start as soon as next week.
“I think you have to, for the sake of the office,” Trump said during an interview on Friday with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who asked if he would invoke executive privilege.
Trump, who said earlier this week he would consult his lawyers on the issue of executive privilege, claimed he personally had “no problem” with Bolton testifying but argued that he has to consider the precedent it would set for presidential privilege and how much a commander in chief would be able to confide in advisers.
“You can’t be in the White House as president — future, I’m talking about future, any future presidents — and have a security adviser, anybody having to do with security, and legal, and other things,” he said.
Bolton, 71, issued a statement Monday saying he is willing to testify, but only if subpoenaed by the Republican-controlled Senate, marking a shift from his refusal to testify before House investigators on orders from the White House.
There has been debate about whether Bolton could offer damaging information to Trump and whether the president can even exert executive privilege to block his testimony.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, announced Friday she’s preparing to send over two articles of impeachment charging Trump with abuse of power in dealing with Ukraine and obstruction of Congress.
So far, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has rejected demands from Democrats to approve a pretrial witness list and said he’s got the backing of 51 GOP lawmakers to approve rules postponing consideration of witnesses until midtrial.
Sen. Susan Collins, a centrist Republican up for reelection later this year, told the Washington Examiner she is working with “some of my Republican colleagues,” as well as party leaders, “to reach an agreement” that would allow for calling witnesses in the expected trial.
Trump said it was “ridiculous” for Pelosi to withhold the articles for weeks in an effort to pressure McConnell to agree to a witness list.
“She should have sent them a long time ago. It just belittles the process … Nancy Pelosi will go down as the least successful speaker of the House in the history of our nation. She has done nothing,” he said.
