President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani tore into former national security adviser John Bolton, calling him a “backstabber” for revealing that Trump withheld military aid approved by Congress for Ukraine until the country agreed to investigate his political rivals.
Giuliani’s attack on Bolton came during an interview with “CBS This Morning” set to broadcast Wednesday, in the wake of reports that Bolton was critical of him and raised concerns about his activities in Ukraine to other administration officials.
“He never said to me, ‘I’ve got a problem with what you are doing in Ukraine,'” Giuliani said. “Never once, never winked, never sent me a little note. He is a personal friend, I thought. So here’s the only conclusion I can come to, and it’s a harsh one. And I feel very bad about it. He’s a backstabber.”
“If your friend was complaining about you behind your back and didn’t have the guts to come up to your face and tell you, ‘I think you’re screwin’ up…’ that’d be a backstabber,” he continued. “That’s classic backstabber. So I feel I got a swamp character here.”
The New York Times reported Sunday that Bolton wrote in a draft of his forthcoming memoir that Trump said in an August meeting that he did not want to release security aid for Ukraine until the country agreed to investigate his political rivals, a claim that cuts to the heart of the impeachment efforts against Trump.
Bolton also reportedly wrote that he raised concerns to Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about Giuliani’s involvement in Ukraine matters, suggesting to Pompeo that Giuliani may have wanted former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch removed from her post because she was targeting his private clients as part of an anti-corruption agenda.
Bolton left the White House last September amid tensions with Trump and other staffers.
The reported claims have amplified Democrats’ efforts to include witnesses such as Bolton in Trump’s ongoing impeachment trial, which GOP leadership has resisted so far.
Giuliani has been a central character in the impeachment saga and is reportedly under federal investigation.
Watch:
Damn, Rudy Giuliani just called John Bolton a backstabber. Way to do sexist tropes Rudy smdh https://t.co/NF18gT0bAK
— al-aqsa blue checkmartyrs brigade (@mattlieb) January 29, 2020
