Complex Event Analysis - Report
Key Focus
Room Where It Happened" describes Mr. Bolton's 17 turbulent months at President Trump's side through a multitude of crises and foreign policy challenges.
By Peter Baker
Published June 18, 2020
Updated June 20, 2020
John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser, plans to publish a damning book next week depicting President Trump as a corrupt, poorly informed, reckless leader who used the power of his office to advance his own personal and political needs even ahead of the nation's interests.
The book, "The Room Where It Happened," describes Mr. Bolton's 17 turbulent months at Mr. Trump's side through a multitude of crises and foreign policy challenges, but attention has focused mainly on his assertions that the president took a variety of actions that should have been investigated for possible impeachment beyond just the pressure campaign on Ukraine to incriminate Democrats.
Mr. Bolton, who did not testify during House proceedings and whose offer to testify in the Senate trial was blocked by Republicans, confirms many crucial elements of the Ukraine scheme that got Mr. Trump impeached in DecemberSome of those Republican senators said that even if Mr. Bolton was correct, it would not be enough in their minds to justify making Mr. Trump the first president in American history convicted and removed from office.
Mr. Bolton blames House Democrats for being in a rush rather than waiting for the court system to rule on whether witnesses like him should testify, and he faults them for narrowing their inquiry to just the Ukraine matter rather than building a broader case with more examples of misconduct by the president.
"Had a Senate majority agreed to call witnesses and had I testified, I am convinced, given the environment then existing because of the House's impeachment malpractice, that it would have made no significant difference in the Senate outcome," he writes.
Singling out episodes of "obstruction of justice as a way of life."
The other episodes that Mr. Bolton says the House should have investigated include Mr. Trump's willingness to intervene in Justice Department investigations against foreign companies to "give personal favors to dictators he liked." Mr. Bolton said it appeared to be "obstruction of justice as a way of life."
He singles out Halkbank of Turkey, a state-owned financial institution investigated for a multibillion-dollar scheme to evade American sanctions on IranAnd he says that Mr. Trump pleaded with China's president to help him win re-election by buying American crops grown in key farm states.
Here are some of the highlights:
An offer of firsthand evidence on the Ukraine matter.
The book offers firsthand evidence that Mr. Trump linked his suspension of $391 million in security aid for Ukraine to his demands that Ukraine publicly announce investigations into supposed wrongdoing by Democrats, including former Vice President Joseph R. the heart of the impeachment case against the president.
If Mr. Bolton's account is to be believed, it means that Mr. Trump explicitly sought to use taxpayer money as leverage to extract help from another country for his partisan political campaign, a quid pro quo that House Democrats called an abuse of powerNo momentum supporting factor found
Challenge supporting factors
(policy, ukraine) (impeachment, ukraine) (bolton, ukraine) (adviser, ukraine) (security, ukraine) (room_where_it_happened, ukraine) (president_trump, ukraine) (bolton, trump) (political, ukraine) (multitude, ukraine)Work-in-progress supporting factors
(security, ukraine) (political, ukraine) (impeachment, ukraine) (democrats, ukraine) (bolton, epilogue) (bolton, impeachment) (bolton, democrats) (bolton, white_house)