January 26, 2020

A bombshell report on Sunday about President Donald Trump’s handling of military aid to Ukraine could jump-start Democrats’ efforts to call witnesses in the Senate’s impeachment trial, just days before a likely vote on whether to seek testimony from current and former Trump administration officials.

According to The New York Times, former national security adviser John Bolton wrote in an initial draft of his forthcoming book that Trump told him that critical military aid to Ukraine would remain suspended until the country’s government helped with Trump’s desired investigations targeting former Vice President Joe Biden and other Democrats.

The revelation came just hours before Trump’s team was preparing to mount a defense of the president’s posture toward Ukraine — one that would be significantly undercut by the account as Bolton related it. The House impeached Trump last month for abuse of power, contending that he pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate Democrats on baseless allegations — and used a freeze on military aid to increase his leverage.

Read more:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/26/bolton-ukraine-aid-impeachment-witnesses-105658