In another extraordinary development surrounding the impeachment of President Donald Trump, yet another huge bombshell was revealed to be included in the manuscript for the upcoming book by former National Security Advisor John Bolton titled The Room Where it Happened.
Citing Bolton’s unpublished manuscript, New York Times correspondents Micheal Schmidt and Maggie Haberman reported Monday evening that Bolton “privately told Attorney General William P. Barr last year that he had concerns that President Trump was effectively granting personal favors to the autocratic leaders of Turkey and China.”
“Mr. Barr responded by pointing to a pair of Justice Department investigations of companies in those countries and said he was worried that Mr. Trump had created the appearance that he had undue influence over what would typically be independent inquiries, according to the manuscript. Backing up his point, Mr. Barr mentioned conversations Mr. Trump had with the leaders, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Xi Jinping of China,” The Times reported.
The report is likely to put increased pressure on congressional Republicans to allow witnesses during Trump’s impeachment trial.
“Mr. Bolton’s account underscores the fact that the unease about Mr. Trump’s seeming embrace of authoritarian leaders, long expressed by experts and his opponents, also existed among some of the senior cabinet officers entrusted by the president to carry out his foreign policy and national security agendas,” The Times reported.
“The book also contains an account of Mr. Trump telling Mr. Bolton in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations of political rivals, The New York Times reported on Sunday. The matter is at the heart of the articles of impeachment against the president,” the newspaper reported.
The book is currently ranked #10 on Amazon’s bestseller list — even though it is not scheduled for release until March.
