January 6, 2020

John Bolton Says He’s Willing to Testify at Impeachment Trial

Yuri Oreshkin/Zuma

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After months of reticence, former national security adviser John Bolton announced Monday on his PAC website that should the Senate subpoena him, he would be willing to testify in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

In November, Bolton conditioned his participation in House impeachment proceedings on the outcome of a lawsuit filed by his former deputy, Charles Kupperman, about whether presidential advisers are immune from congressional subpoena. The House Intelligence Committee did not subpoena Bolton, saying that it would rather forgo Bolton’s testimony than allow “the Administration to play rope-a-dope with us in the courts for months.” Now, Bolton has affirmed that he would comply with a subpoena from the Senate—although it’s unclear whether the Senate will subpoena any witnesses at all.

Bolton’s behavior has left a lot of room for speculation about how strongly—if at all—he would defend the president regarding the Ukraine scandal. Bolton reportedly referred to the doings of Ambassador Gordon Sondland and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney as a “drug deal” and expressed alarm at Trump’s attempts to get the president of Ukraine to investigate Burisma, the natural gas company on whose board former Vice President Joe Biden’s son once sat. Still, Bolton’s enthusiasm for Trump’s killing of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani suggests he may have a new motivation to defend the president.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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