A rattled President Donald Trump stayed up way past his bedtime to blast the bombshell account that he told former top aide John Bolton about the improper Ukraine scheme that got him impeached.
Trump after midnight Monday morning issued a shrill denial of the explosive story that Bolton's forthcoming memoir details Trump's admission that he held up defense aid to bully Ukraine into launching investigations into Democrats.
"I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens," Trump tweeted at 12:18 am. "If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book."
Less than seven hours later, Trump was back on social media making the dubious claim that Bolton shouldn't be called to testify at Trump's impeachment trial because the House of Representatives could have sought to force his testimony in their inquiry last year.
Bolton reportedly relates in the book manuscript that Trump brazenly told him that he did not plan to release nearly $400 million in defense aid to Ukraine unless the embattled ally announced probes into Democratic front runner Joe Biden and a Trump-friendly conspiracy theory about the 2016 election.
The scoop will pile massive new pressure on Republican senators to drop their opposition to Bolton being called as a witness. That could upend their plans for a quickie acquittal of Trump sometime this week and might lead to more damaging evidence surfacing.
"It completely blasts another hole in the president's defense," Rep. Adam Schiff said. "How you can explain that you wanted a search for the truth in this trial and say you don't want to hear from a witness who had a direct conversation about the central allegation in the articles of impeachment?"
The New York Times broke the news of the Bolton book as Trump's lawyers prepared for their first full day of his impeachment defense.
The defense plans to wrap up on Tuesday followed by Senate questions. The GOP hoped to then quash Democratic demands for witnesses like Bolton and Mick Mulvaney and move on to acquit Trump.
That timetable could be thrown into turmoil by Bolton's explosive account, which may force Republicans senators to accept that he should be subpoenaed to testify.
Bolton is by far the most senior aide to Trump to claim direct knowledge of an improper trade off in the Ukraine scheme. Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney publicly admitted the quid pro quo at a botched press conference but later backtracked.
Republicans fear that Bolton's testimony may open the door to demands for Mulvaney and other witnesses to come forward and say what they know under oath. Bolton's book reveals unflattering details about the roles of Mulvaney and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the scandal, which could prompt demands for their testimony.
It remains unclear how Bolton's manuscript became public. He submitted the bombshell document to the White House for routine vetting after Christmas last year. That could explain why Trump's defenders ramped up their opposition to any witnesses at the Senate trial around the same time.
