President Donald Trump denied claims in a New York Times report Sunday evening about a forthcoming book by former National Security Advisor John Bolton in which Bolton reportedly claims Trump wanted to make aid to Ukraine conditional on investigations into “Democrats.”
The Timesstory claimed that drafts of Bolton’s book that had been submitted to the National Security Council (NSC) for review reported that “President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens.”
The Times did not quote the manuscript itself, but rather people who claimed to have seen it.
The “investigations” Trump allegedly wanted are unclear; the Times article later mentions that Trump wanted Ukraine to provide “materials they had about the Russia investigation that related to Mr. Biden and supporters of Mrs. Clinton in Ukraine.”
Bolton’s lawyer released a statement Sunday evening in which said that the NSC’s “prepublication review process has been corrupted.” He did not confirm or deny the Times‘ reporting of the contents of Bolton’s book.
Breitbart News reported that Army Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, a lead NSC ethics lawyer and the brother of impeachment witness Lt. Col Alexander Vindman, is in charge of reviewing materials by current or former NSC officials in the prepublication review.
Trump reacted on Twitter:
I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that being said, the…
…transcripts of my calls with President Zelensky are all the proof that is needed, in addition to the fact that President Zelensky & the Foreign Minister of Ukraine said there was no pressure and no problems. Additionally, I met with President Zelensky at the United Nations…
…(Democrats said I never met) and released the military aid to Ukraine without any conditions or investigations – and far ahead of schedule. I also allowed Ukraine to purchase Javelin anti-tank missiles. My Administration has done far more than the previous Administration.
The Senate impeachment trial resumes Monday afternoon, with White House lawyers continuing their opening arguments in response to arguments by House Democrat impeachment managers last week.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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