Representative Eliot Engel (D., N.Y.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released a statement on Wednesday revealing that former national security adviser John Bolton had called him in September to suggest that he investigate the ouster of former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
“President Trump is wrong that John Bolton didn’t say anything about the Trump-Ukraine scandal at the time the President fired him. He said something to me,” Engel wrote. “[Bolton] and I spoke by telephone on September 23. On that call, Ambassador Bolton suggested to me–unprompted–that the committee look into the recall of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. He strongly implied something improper had occurred around her removal as top diplomat in Ukraine.”
President Trump dismissed Bolton from his position on September 10. Trump has criticized Bolton over reports the former adviser had written in the manuscript of his book The Room Where it Happened, set for release on March 17, that Trump had conditioned aid to Ukraine on that country’s commitment to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden.
“Why didn’t John Bolton complain about this ‘nonsense’ a long time ago, when he was very publicly terminated,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “He said, not that it matters, NOTHING!”
Engel said in his statement that he reported his September 23 conversation with Bolton to “investigative colleagues” involved in the House Foreign Affairs Committee probe into Yovanovitch’s firing. Engel said he did not publicize the conversation earlier due to its “private” nature.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry the day after Engel’s and Bolton’s phone conversation.
Former ambassador Yovanovitch testified in House impeachment hearings that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s associates, businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, had smeared her as badmouthing the president in order to oust her and advance their own “business dealings” in Ukraine.
Former Ukraine top prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko reportedly offered Giuliani information on the Bidens in exchange for the removal of Yovanovitch. The former ambassador had been critical of Lutsenko and his office, and supported an anti-corruption institution in Ukraine that Lutsenko opposed.