'Nightmare scenario': Columnist says John Bolton’s book shows how quickly Trump’s defense can crumble

In an analysis published in the Washington Post this Monday, senior political reporter Aaron Blake writes that revelations from former national security adviser John Bolton about President Trump's alleged quid pro quo with the president of Ukraine underscores the "potential peril" Republicans face if they block him from testifying.

"In other words: Bolton is naming names — lots of names — and directly contradicting what top administration officials are saying," Blake writes.

While it looks less likely that Democrats will get the four GOP votes needed to make Bolton testify at Trump's impeachment trial, the revelations from the unpublished manuscript of Bolton's upcoming book reinforce "just how much insight he could provide — as well as the pitfalls of not allowing him to tell his story now."

"The nightmare scenario for the GOP is that they give Trump the quick and witness-free acquittal that he apparently desires, but then information like Bolton’s keeps coming out," Blake writes. "Bolton now suggests Trump was indeed telling people privately that the withheld military aid was part of a quid pro quo — a quid pro quo that Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland testified that he communicated to the Ukrainians. This is something Trump’s team has strenuously denied, including at the impeachment trial. What if Bolton isn’t the only person Trump told this to who might suddenly contradict them? However closely this has already been tied to Trump, it can always be tied more closely. Bolton’s upcoming book — slated for March 17 — is a great example of how the hastily assembled walls the Trump team have built around its defense can quickly crumble and, in some cases, already have."

Read his full piece over at The Washington Post.