October 30, 2019

House Democrats Ask John Bolton to Testify in Impeachment Inquiry

Viktor Tolochko/AP

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Congressional investigators have asked John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, to testify next week as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

The New York Times and the Daily Beast reported on Wednesday that House Democrats summoned Bolton for a voluntary deposition on November 7.

Witnesses in the impeachment inquiry have described Bolton as alarmed by the aggressive efforts of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and EU ambassador Gordon Sondland to pressure Ukraine into investigating Trump’s domestic political rivals. Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top Russia adviser, testified that Bolton told her to tell the National Security Council’s top attorney about the back-channeling. “Giuliani’s a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up,” Hill said Bolton told her.

Trump pushed Bolton, a hardline foreign policy hawk, out of the administration in September amid major policy disagreements.

A spokesperson for House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) declined to comment bout the deposition request. It’s unclear whether Bolton will comply with it. Investigators have also called on former top NSC attorney John Eisenberg and a deputy, Michael Ellis, for voluntary depositions on November 4.  

Update: John Bolton’s attorney Charles Cooper says the former national security adviser won’t show up to testify voluntarily. 

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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