Donald Trump’s lawyers will resume presenting their case to the Senate Monday afternoon. It will be the same attorneys in similar suits saying again the President did nothing wrong. It will look just like Saturday. Ah, but looks can be deceiving. The leak of John Bolton’s book over the weekend changed everything. And it could even be changing some Senators’ minds. Bolton’s claim that Trump withheld aid from Ukraine goes against the White House narrative, and taps the brakes on a fast acquittal, at least for today. Axios’ Mike Allen writes:
Republican sources tell me that party leaders and the White House will still try to resist witnesses because, as one top aide put it, “there is a sense in the Senate that if one witness is allowed, the floodgates are open.”
“If [Bolton] says stuff that implicates, say Mick [Mulvaney] or [Mike] Pompeo, then calls for them will intensify,” the aide said.”
Or as Democrats might say, the truth is about to get messy.
Politico Playbook calls it a ”monster scoop” by the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Mike Schmidt.
”But let’s be perfectly clear here: Maggie.and Mike’s story is as bad as can be for Trump. Bolton is now contradicting the president’s claim that he did not tie the aid to investigating Joe Biden and he is a direct eyewitness. It comes at the absolute worst time for this White House: as the Senate is days away from deciding whether to call witnesses in the impeachment trial.
”Bolton is dangerous because he’s unmoored from Trump.
”He clearly does not care what the president’s orbit thinks of him. His 528-page book is titled, “The Room Where It Happened,” with the words contained inside an oval (hint, hint). It is scheduled for release March 17 and, conveniently enough, is now available for pre-order on Amazon.”
So, what happens now? Expect stiff resistance from the White House on witnesses to continue. A vote on whether to allow them will happen later this week.
On Friday, Democrats didn’t have the four votes needed. Now, that number could be growing. Senator Mitt Romney is the first to signal that there is talk going on behind the scenes to this effect. CNN’s Manu Ranju reports:
Sen. Mitt Romney this AM reiterates calls for John Bolton to testify, saying he’s had discussions with some of his colleagues and predicted that it would be “very likely” that there would be others who would join him in seeking Bolton testimony.
I asked him if Trump tied Ukraine aid to investigations – if that would be enough for him to convict, and he said: “I can’t begin to tell you how John Bolton’s testimony would ultimately play on a final decision but it’s relevant..I will maintain impartiality to the extent I can”
