John Bolton Says He Would Comply with Senate Subpoena to Testify in Impeachment Trial – By Scott Shackford (Reason) / Jan 6 2020
The big question is whether Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will allow any witnesses at all.
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton said today that he will comply with a subpoena if he’s ordered to testify at the Senate’s impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
The possibility of Bolton’s testimony had been up in the air. The White House has been trying to keep witnesses who worked for Trump from testifying to Congress in the matter, which centers around Trump’s temporary withholding of aid to Ukraine to get the country to investigate rival presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son.
The conflict ended up in the courts, as the Trump administration tried to stop former Bolton aide Charles Kupperman from complying with a House subpoena. Kupperman was essentially receiving contradictory orders and wanted a federal judge to tell him which branch of the government took precedence. But then the House withdrew its subpoena and impeached Trump anyway. So at the end of December a judge ruled the case moot, leaving it unresolved whether the administration has the authority to prevent former staffers from complying with congressional subpoenas and whether Congress would have the authority to punish those who do as the White House ordered.
Bolton is in the same position: Both sides have been making potentially contradictory demands. With the Kupperman case unresolved, it was unclear what would happen if the Senate called Bolton in.
Continue to article: https://reason.com/2020/01/06/john-bolton-says-he-would-comply-with-senate-subpoena-to-testify-in-impeachment-trial/
