"NBC News today reporting on a possible bombshell in the impeachment investigation, for the first time in this country’s history a president’s own National Security Adviser could be a witness in the impeachment investigation into him," anchor Nicolle Wallace reported. "NBC News reporting former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s lawyers have been in contact with committee officials amid reports of ongoing negotiations about a date for a closed-door deposition."
"Investigators have already heard about Bolton’s concerns about the hijacking of Ukraine policy for political aims through the testimony of one of Bolton’s top and most trusted deputies, Fiona Hill. She said Bolton called the administration’s actions around Ukraine a 'drug deal.' But hearing it from Bolton himself could be a game-changer," she explained.
"Bolton is also the White House official who sent one of his deputies, Hill, to report the misconduct of other White House aides to the White House counsel’s office," she continued. "And through the testimony of Hill we know that Bolton expressed himself sometimes in colorful terms, at one point describing Rudy Giuliani as, 'a hand grenade who is going to blow everybody up.'"
Wallace, who was a top Republican communications operative and White House communications director prior to her journalism career, offered her analysis of the politics.
"Politically speaking, hearing from a conservative fixture like Bolton could represent a lights-out moment for Donald Trump -- on process and on substance Bolton’s participation in the impeachment inquiry could seal Donald Trump’s fate as the first president in this country’s history to be impeached for conditioning military aid for an American ally on political dirt on a domestic rival," Wallace said.
"And as dramatic as it would be, Bolton’s potential testimony may not even be necessary from the perspective of evidence-gathering. A crush of witnesses have corroborated the original whistleblower complaint and when taken together with the president and Rudy’s own admissions, the picture of aid for dirt is clear as day to a majority of the public, who now support the impeachment and removal of Donald Trump," she noted.
"No even fantasy from this White House could depict him as any sort of deep-state actor. He’s a conservative’s conservative. What would be a real spectacle would be to watch Fox News cover John Bolton’s testify in an impeachment inquiry," she noted.
"It’s unbelievable, Phil Rucker, how quickly this has all moved," she said to the Washington Post White House bureau chief. "I think it was two Mondays ago that the testimony of Gordon Sondland was blocked and it ended up happening that Thursday. But the stonewalling campaign from this White House sort of came and went."
"It’s extraordinary, that stonewall has basically crumbled," Rucker said.
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