A pair of moderate Republican senators said Monday that the major revelations from a soon-to-be released book by John Bolton strengthen the case for calling witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial — and even a top ally of the president said Bolton would be a “relevant” witness.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said it’s “increasingly likely” there will be enough Republican senators to vote in favor of calling witnesses in the president’s ongoing trial.
“I think, with the story (about Bolton’s book) that came out yesterday, it’s increasingly apparent that it would be important to hear from John Bolton,” Romney told reporters. Romney said he hasn’t fully made up his mind on calling witnesses, but what Bolton has to say is “relevant” and “therefore I’d like to hear it.”
“I think it’s increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton,” Romney said. “I’ve spoken with others who’ve opined upon this as well.”
Another moderate Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, tweeted out a statement saying the “reports about John Bolton’s book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues.”
At least four Republicans would need to vote alongside all Democratic senators in order to secure new testimony, which could lengthen the trial.
Romney, Collins, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee are considered to be the most likely Republicans to vote in favor of witnesses. Murkowski and Alexander have yet to comment on the new Bolton revelations.
Even Sen. Lindsey Graham. a top Trump ally who’s resisted calls for additional witnesses and documents, acknowledged to reporters that Bolton may be “a relevant witness” and said he’d consider subpoenaing a manuscript of his book.
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“I want to know what’s in the manuscript. Yeah I think that’s important,” said Graham, R-S.C..
If witnesses are called, Graham said he also wants to include witnesses sought by the president.
“We’re not going to get part of it, we’re going to get all of it,” he said.
On Sunday, Graham had said on Fox News that seeking witness testimony would “throw the country into chaos,” and said the Senate should get testimony from witnesses Trump seeks, like former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and the whistleblower, outside the impeachment process.
Some Republicans have cast doubt on the bombshell report that Bolton alleges in his book that Trump directly linked the withheld Ukrainian military aid and his push for investigations into Democrats.
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And they also said that if the Senate now votes to hear from witnesses such as Bolton, senators better allow for Trump’s preferred witnesses to be called to testify as well.
Trump also has previously suggested he would block Bolton’s testimony and said last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that Bolton appearing at the trial would present “a national security problem.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told “Fox & Friends” on Monday that if new testimony is approved, the Senate should hear from those Trump-sought witnesses too.
In the event additional witness testimony and documents are approved, Hawley said he has prepared subpoenas for testimony and documents from the Bidens, the whistleblower who alerted Congress to Trump’s Ukraine dealings and others.
Of Bolton’s book, Hawley said “it’s certainly going to sell a lot of” copies.
“Listen, I can’t tell from the New York Times report what is actually being reported here,” he said. “I can’t tell if this is something new. I can’t tell if they’ve actually seen the manuscript. It’s all a bunch of hearsay and clearly it’s an attempt to try to influence the course of the trial.”
According to a manuscript of Bolton’s book, obtained by The New York Times and not seen by NBC News, Trump told Bolton in August that the nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine would not be released until the country provided all of the information it had in connection to the investigations of Democrats the president sought. One month earlier, Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens and Democrats.
Trump and allies have said the investigations and aid were not linked, though acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said late last year that the aid was linked to an investigation of so-called Ukrainian electoral interference in 2016. Mulvaney later walked back those remarks. Meanwhile, Trump’s impeachment defense has argued in its “six facts” of the case that “not a single witness testified that the president himself said that there was any connection between any investigations and security assistance, a presidential meeting or anything else.”
On Monday, Trump tweeted he “NEVER” told Bolton of a link between investigations and aid, saying Bolton was “only” making that assertion “to sell a book.”
Speaking with “Fox and Friends,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said “the timing” of the Bolton report “is a little interesting, isn’t it?”
“But the best I can tell from what’s reported in the New York Times [is] it’s nothing different than what we’ve already heard, and as I said, no crimes were alleged and these events never actually occurred, the withholding of aid and the investigations,” Cornyn said.
Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., told MSNBC’s “Kasie DC” on Sunday that, moving forward, you have to take into consideration whether there was “anything that would motivate” Bolton to make the assertions.
