Bolton Objected to Ukraine Pressure Campaign, Calling Giuliani ‘a Hand Grenade’

[Rogue Valley]

Bolton Objected to Ukraine Pressure Campaign, Calling Giuliani ‘a Hand Grenade’

Fiona Hill, President Trump’s former adviser on Russia and Europe, arriving Monday on Capitol Hill.

10/14/19
WASHINGTON — The effort to pressure Ukraine for political help provoked a heated confrontation inside the White House last summer that so alarmed John R. Bolton, then the national security adviser, that he told an aide to alert White House lawyers, House investigators were told on Monday. Mr. Bolton got into a tense exchange on July 10 with Gordon D. Sondland, the Trump donor turned ambassador to the European Union, who was working with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, to press Ukraine to investigate Democrats, according to three people who heard the testimony. The aide, Fiona Hill, testified that Mr. Bolton told her to notify the chief lawyer for the National Security Council about a rogue effort by Mr. Sondland, Mr. Giuliani and Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, according to the people familiar with the testimony. “I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up,” Mr. Bolton, a Yale-trained lawyer, told Ms. Hill to tell White House lawyers, according to two people at the deposition. It was not the first time Mr. Bolton expressed grave concerns to Ms. Hill about the campaign being run by Mr. Giuliani. “Giuliani’s a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up,” Ms. Hill quoted Mr. Bolton as saying during an earlier conversation. The testimony revealed in a powerful way just how divisive Mr. Giuliani’s efforts to extract damaging information about Democrats from Ukraine on President Trump’s behalf were within the White House. Ms. Hill, the senior director for European and Russian affairs, testified that Mr. Giuliani and his allies circumvented the usual national security process to run their own foreign policy efforts, leaving the president’s official advisers aware of the rogue operation yet powerless to stop it.

At one point, she confronted Mr. Sondland, who had inserted himself into dealings with Ukraine even though it was not part of his official portfolio, according to the people informed about Ms. Hill’s testimony. He told her that he was in charge of Ukraine, a moment she compared to Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr.’s declaration that he was in charge after the Ronald Reagan assassination attempt, according to those who heard the testimony. According to whom, she asked. The president, he answered. Ms. Hill was the first former White House official to testify in the House impeachment inquiry, and her account provided a gripping in-the-room view of the shadow maneuvers that have jeopardized Mr. Trump’s presidency. Career diplomats have expressed outrage at the unceremonious removal of Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch from Ukraine after she came under attack by Mr. Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr. and two associates who have since been arrested on charges of campaign violations.

Bolton strongly objected to a July 10 meeting in the White House between Gordon Sondland, Kurt Volker, Trump Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and two unnamed Ukrainian officials. Bolton refused to attend and sent Ms. Hill to the meeting with orders to report back to him what transpired. Upon hearing Ms. Hill's report, Bolton instructed her to report the meeting to White House legal counsel John A. Eisenberg which she did.

So let's see. So far we have Americans Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo, Rick Perry, (William Barr?), Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr., Gordon Sondland, Kurt Volker, William Taylor, and the arrested Floridians. About an equal number of Ukrainians were involved on that end, current and former officials and an oligarch.

Scheduled to testify today - George P. Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eastern Europe.

Wednesday - Michael McKinley, Senior Adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who abruptly resigned last week in order to testify.

Thursday - Gordon Sondland, US Ambassador to the European Union and major Trump campaign donor. He is in this up to his neck.

Friday - Laura K. Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia policy.

 

[Allan]

It's over for Trump, and Giuliani is going to jail. The floodgates are opening and the opposition to Trump's malfeasance is overwhelming, and it's from within.

 

[Mycroft]

Bolton Objected to Ukraine Pressure Campaign, Calling Giuliani ‘a Hand Grenade’

Fiona Hill, President Trump’s former adviser on Russia and Europe, arriving Monday on Capitol Hill.



Bolton strongly objected to a July 10 meeting in the White House between Gordon Sondland, Kurt Volker, Trump Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and two unnamed Ukrainian officials. Bolton refused to attend and sent Ms. Hill to the meeting with orders to report back to him what transpired. Upon hearing Ms. Hill's report, Bolton instructed her to report the meeting to White House legal counsel John A. Eisenberg which she did.

So let's see. So far we have Americans Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo, Rick Perry, (William Barr?), Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr., Gordon Sondland, Kurt Volker, William Taylor, and the arrested Floridians. About an equal number of Ukrainians were involved on that end, current and former officials and an oligarch.

Scheduled to testify today - George P. Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eastern Europe.

Wednesday - Michael McKinley, Senior Adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who abruptly resigned last week in order to testify.

Thursday - Gordon Sondland, US Ambassador to the European Union and major Trump campaign donor. He is in this up to his neck.

Friday - Laura K. Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia policy.

Oh goody!!

More closed hearings...more Schiffty-leaked sound bites...no transcripts.

Who cares?

 

[Pound4abrown]

Oh goody!!

More closed hearings...more Schiffty-leaked sound bites...no transcripts.

Who cares?

Did you cry into your towel over the closed door hearings during Benghazi? Or are your tears only for when your team gets it on the back side?
Rhetorical, I don't care.

 

[Rexedgar]

Oh goody!!

More closed hearings...more Schiffty-leaked sound bites...no transcripts.

Who cares?

House Intel Committee
House Foreign Affairs Committee
House Committee on Oversight

 

[Rogue Valley]

Oh goody!!

More closed hearings...more Schiffty-leaked sound bites...no transcripts.

Who cares?

If you had any experience with investigations and courtrooms, you would perhaps understand closed-door testimony. The main purpose is to shield witnesses from identification and intimidation/retribution, but is is also a valuable tool that prevents perpetrators from "custom tailoring" their own testimony according to what they know about previous testimony. These are the main reasons why grand jury testimony is conducted in secret.

 

[Mycroft]

If you had any experience with investigations and courtrooms, you would perhaps understand closed-door testimony. The main purpose is to shield witnesses from identification and intimidation/retribution, but is is also a valuable tool that prevents perpetrators from "custom tailoring" their own testimony according to what they know about previous testimony. These are the main reasons why grand jury testimony is conducted in secret.

None of these people who are scheduled are being shielded from identification...blah, blah, blah.

And yet, it's okay for Schiffty to leak cherry-picked testimony so that the upcoming people can "custom tailor" THEIR testimony.

If Schiffty wasn't so dishonest and hypocritical, he would either make the full testimony available or make none of it available. No leaks.

This is a deliberate dog and pony show designed to limit the information the public gets...only what HE wants the public to get.

As I said...who cares?

 

[Condor060]

If you had any experience with investigations and courtrooms, you would perhaps understand closed-door testimony. The main purpose is to shield witnesses from identification and intimidation/retribution

Yet the names are provided in advance so that kinda kills that theory doesn't it.

But you think refusing to release transcripts to even House members of the hearings, holding Impeachment hearings behind closed doors, kicking out Republican committee members so they can't ask questions, and using anonymous witnesses is just fine.

This looks exactly what it does to voters. Desperation.

 

[Hypothetical]

Schiff can go to hell with his leaked kangaroo court statements.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Schiff can go to hell with his leaked kangaroo court statements.

So can you.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Yet the names are provided in advance so that kinda kills that theory doesn't it.

I provided 2 reasons.

Another one that can't read. (but he can sure cherry pick)

 

[Rogue Valley]

None of these people who are scheduled are being shielded from identification...blah, blah, blah.

You certainly never complained about closed Benghazi testimony.

Hypocrite.

 

[Lisa]

How bad does the situation have to be when John (the walrus) Bolton looks principled and honest?

John Bolton assisted in committing war crimes with his actions prior to the 2003 Iraq war and he looks principled compared to Donald Trump and his administration.

 

[SonOfDaedalus]

Yet the names are provided in advance so that kinda kills that theory doesn't it.

But you think refusing to release transcripts to even House members of the hearings, holding Impeachment hearings behind closed doors, kicking out Republican committee members so they can't ask questions, and using anonymous witnesses is just fine.

This looks exactly what it does to voters. Desperation.

Is it that you don't believe the claims that Bolton objected to what Giuliani and Sundland were doing? Or do you just have no problem with the situation if the allegations are true?

 

[SonOfDaedalus]

How bad does the situation have to be when John (the walrus) Bolton looks principled and honest?

John Bolton assisted in committing war crimes with his actions prior to the 2003 Iraq war and he looks principled compared to Donald Trump and his administration.

The situation is a cesspool.

 

[lwf]

None of these people who are scheduled are being shielded from identification...blah, blah, blah.

And yet, it's okay for Schiffty to leak cherry-picked testimony so that the upcoming people can "custom tailor" THEIR testimony.

If Schiffty wasn't so dishonest and hypocritical, he would either make the full testimony available or make none of it available. No leaks.

This is a deliberate dog and pony show designed to limit the information the public gets...only what HE wants the public to get.

As I said...who cares?

The majority of American voters care.

 

[Mycroft]

The majority of American voters care.

yawn...

Another poll that manipulates their sampling data. (don't believe me? look it up.)

Anyway, that poll didn't ask anyone if they found Schiffty to be dishonest and hypocritical. That's an important question, don't you think?

 

[Pound4abrown]

yawn...

Another poll that manipulates their sampling data. (don't believe me? look it up.)

Anyway, that poll didn't ask anyone if they found Schiffty to be dishonest and hypocritical. That's an important question, don't you think?

No. I think if he is as dishonest and hypocritical as you say then he will have his day to answer to that.
Right now, we are focused on the corruption in the White House, do keep up.

 

[Mycroft]

No. I think if he is as dishonest and hypocritical as you say then he will have his day to answer to that.
Right now, we are focused on the corruption in the White House, do keep up.

LOL!!

What corruption?

 

[lwf]

yawn...

Another poll that manipulates their sampling data. (don't believe me? look it up.)

Anyway, that poll didn't ask anyone if they found Schiffty to be dishonest and hypocritical. That's an important question, don't you think?

I think it is as important a question as a poll that asked if anyone found Trump to be dishonest and hypocritical. How do you think those polls would compare?

 

[lwf]

LOL!!

What corruption?

Extorting a foreign government by withholding congressionally-approved aid unless they open an unprompted investigation into the business dealings of your political opponent.

 

[Mycroft]

I think it is as important a question as a poll that asked if anyone found Trump to be dishonest and hypocritical. How do you think those polls would compare?

Depends upon who's responses they use.

 

[Mycroft]

Extorting a foreign government by withholding congressionally-approved aid unless they open an unprompted investigation into the business dealings of your political opponent.

Trump didn't do that.

 

[Lisa]

Trump didn't do that.

The evidence and his staff said that he did do that.

 

[Mycroft]

The evidence and his staff said that he did do that.

The only "evidence" is the transcript of the call and there is nothing in the call about withholding anything nor about politics.

His staff have presented nothing but personal opinion about his actions and 2nd or 3rd hand claims about other people's opinions about his actions.

Sorry...but there is no evidence.