John Bolton may testify at Donald Trump’s impeachment trial

Sacked national security adviser John Bolton may yet testify in ­Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

All eyes are on several Republican senators including Mitt Romney, above, who wants to hear from former national security adviser John Bolton. Picture: AAP

Sacked national security adviser John Bolton may yet testify in ­Donald Trump’s impeachment trial after moderate Republicans said they were influenced by the explosive claims he made about the US President’s actions in the Ukraine controversy.

The impeachment trial on Tuesday (AEDT) was largely overshadowed by Mr Bolton’s claims in his new book that Mr Trump had told him he wanted to keep freezing US aid to Ukraine until it helped investigations into Democrats, including Joe and Hunter Biden.

Mr Bolton’s claims, which were denied by Mr Trump and which contradict the defence put forward by his lawyers in the Senate trial, have shifted opinion among some moderate Republicans in favour of calling witnesses, including Mr Bolton.

John Bolton may testify at Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. Picture: AP

“John Bolton’s relevance to our decision has become increasingly clear,” Republican senator Mitt Romney said, adding that it was “increasingly likely” that other senators would want Mr Bolton to testify.

Another moderate Republican senator, Susan Collins, said Mr Bolton’s claims made in a draft of his new book would “strengthen the case for witnesses” in the ­impeachment trial. “The reports about John Bolton’s book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues,” Senator Collins said.

The Senate will vote later this week on whether to allow new witnesses and documents as a part of the trial, with Democrats strongly in favour and most Republicans opposed.

Democrats need four Republicans to vote with them to allow new witnesses, a move that would extend the trial and inject uncertainty into the proceedings, ­especially if the outspoken Mr Bolton was subpoenaed.

Mr Trump on Tuesday denied Mr Bolton’s claims, accusing him of trying to boost sales for his new book.

“I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, ­including the Bidens,” the President tweeted.

“In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.”

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that being said, the...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2020

Mr Bolton’s claims have undercut a key tenet of the defence by Mr Trump’s lawyers who have ­argued there was no direct evidence that Mr Trump linked the freezing of aid to an investigation into the Bidens.

Mr Bolton, in his forthcoming book, The Room Where It Happened, reportedly writes that Mr Trump told him directly in August that he wanted to continue freezing the almost $US400m in US ­security aid to Ukraine until that government helped investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Mr Trump’s legal team ­resumed its defence of the President in the Senate on Tuesday without mentioning the claims made by Mr Bolton.

“We deal with transcript evidence … we do not deal with speculation, allegations that are not based on evidentiary standards,” lawyer Jay Sekulow said, in an ­apparent reference to the reported claims made by Mr Bolton.

But Democrat house impeachment managers said Mr Bolton’s claims made it vital that he be called as a witness.

“There can be no doubt now that Mr Bolton directly contradicts the heart of the President’s defence and therefore must be called as a witness at the impeachment trial of President Trump,” they said.

“There is no defensible reason to wait until his book is published, when the information he has to offer is critical to the most important decision senators must now make — whether to convict the President of impeachable offences.”

Democrat impeachment leader Adam Schiff said the Senate should also gain access to the contemporaneous notes that Mr Bolton took at the time.

Republicans warned that if the Democrats voted to call new witnesses, they would call their own witnesses, including the Bidens.

“If there is a desire and decision by the Senate to call Democratic witnesses, then at a minimum the Senate should allow President Trump to call all relevant witnesses he has requested,” Trump loyalist senator Lindsey Graham tweeted.

The President’s legal team ­argued that the activities of the Bidens in the Ukraine were worthy of investigation.

“They (Democrats) say sham. They say baseless,” a lawyer for the President, Pam Bondi, told the senators. “They say this because if it’s OK for someone to say, ‘hey, you know what, maybe there’s something here worth raising,’ their case crumbles.”

She pointed out that Hunter Biden was paid handsomely for a board seat on Ukrainian gas company Burisma despite having no relevant qualifications, at the same time as his father, then the US vice-president, was investigating corruption in Ukraine.

Mr Biden, campaigning in Iowa for next week’s first Democratic caucus, said he had nothing to ­defend from any allegation.

“This is all a game,” he said. “Even if they bring me up — no one has said I’ve done anything that was wrong, period. What is there to defend?”

Mr Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow told the Senate that Democrats had impeached the President over no more than a policy difference.

“If the bar of impeachment has now reached that level, then for the sake of the republic, the danger that puts not just this body but our entire constitutional framework in is unmanageable,” he said.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said the impeachment trial was unfolding “a little bit” like the Watergate scandal.

“Every few days, there’s ­another revelation and another revelation and another revelation, and the case gets stronger and stronger,” he said.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia