Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) on Thursday called on former White House national security adviser John Bolton to publish the sections of his book that are relevant to President Trump’s ongoing impeachment trial.
“I personally don’t know why John Bolton doesn’t put the relevant portions of the book up–just publish it,” Hawley told CNN. “He said nothing in there is classified in the book as a whole. Why doesn’t he just put the relevant portions up?”
Senator Hawley simultaneously dismissed the notion that the book’s contents would have an impact on his impeachment vote.
“Listen, it doesn’t make a difference at the end of the day to what is before us. I just think…I’m ready to vote,” Hawley said.
In the book, titled The Room Where it Happened, Bolton reportedly states that he personally witnessed Trump tie Ukrainian military aid to that country’s commitment to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden.
On January 23, three days before the Times reported the Ukraine excerpt, the National Security Council forbid publishing of the manuscript, saying the book contained highly classified information that could “cause exceptionally grave harm to the national security.”
“It is important to note that I have received no response whatever to my urgent request for the NSC’s immediate guidance as to any concerns it may have with respect to the chapter of the manuscript dealing with Ambassador Bolton’s involvement in matters relating to Ukraine,” Bolton’s lawyer Charles Cooper responded in a statement.
The revelation in Bolton’s manuscript disrupted Senate Republicans’ blanket opposition to calling witnesses as a number of moderate Senators, including Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine, said they would like to hear from Bolton and will vote Friday to call him as a witness.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told his caucus Wednesday that he lacks the vote to block the calling of witnesses but a number of wavering Republicans have since said they prefer a swift conclusion to the trial. And, on Friday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) admitted that Democrats would be hard-pressed to gain enough votes to call witnesses.
“We’ve always known it will be an uphill fight on witnesses and on documents because the president and Mitch McConnell put huge pressure on these folks,” Schumer said, while insisting the public is “overwhelmingly on our side for witnesses.”