Bolton’s Book Revealed In Coordinated Leaks, Claims Trump Asked Xi Favor, Dems Fumbled Impeachment

An anti-Trump book written by Former National Security Adviser John Bolton has leaked to the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, and boy is he bitter.

In it, the disappointed Iran war hawk makes unsubstantiated claims that House Democrats should have conducted a broader probe into President Trump beyond Ukraine, “for a variety of instances when he sought to intervene in law enforcement matters for political reasons.”

Mr. Bolton describes several episodes where the president expressed willingness to halt criminal investigations “to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked,” citing cases involving major firms in China and Turkey. “The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn’t accept,” Mr. Bolton writes, adding that he reported his concerns to Attorney General William P. Barr.

Mr. Bolton also adds a striking new allegation by saying that Mr. Trump overtly linked trade negotiations to his own political fortunes by asking President Xi Jinping of China to buy a lot of American agricultural products to help him win farm states in this year’s election. Mr. Trump, he writes, was “pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win. He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome.” –NYT

SOYBEAN DIPLOMACY: The WSJ has published an excerpt of @AmbJohnBolton’s forthcoming book, revealing Trump-Xi conversation and how the American president pleaded his Chinese counterpart to buy U.S. soybeans so he could win farm states in the 2020 presidential elections | #OATT pic.twitter.com/XKAogLCCtN

— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) June 17, 2020

Meanwhile, an excerpt from the book, “The Room Where It Happened,” can be found at the Journal. It is set for release on June 23, despite attempts by the White House to block publication of the nearly 600-page book on grounds that it would be a violation of nondisclosure agreements as well as a threat to national security.

“[The National Security Council] has determined that the manuscript in its present form contains certain passages — some up to several paragraphs in length — that contain classified national security information,” states a 27-page civil lawsuit filed by the DOJ with the US District Court for the District of Columbia. “In fact, the NSC has determined that information in the manuscript is classified at the Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret levels.”

And remember folks, Bolton kept his mouth shut when it would have mattered most, under oath – famously refusing to cooperate with House investigators during the Ukraine investigation.

The fact that simply printing “orange man bad” is a legit business plan in 2020 America is proof that there’s something to the notion of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

— Jacob Weindling (@Jakeweindling) June 17, 2020

“John, we begged you to testify in impeachment. We tried everything, right up until the very last minute of the trial,” said House Judiciary Committee lawyer Norm Eisen during the impeachment process. “You persistently refused. Now you want us to feel sorry for you & buy your book?“

According to Politico, it is unclear whether lawmakers will now seek Bolton’s sworn testimony on issues he’s identified in his book as part of a second impeachment.