Does Bolton do it and testify against Trump?

Mohamed Minshawi-Washington

Two months after the inauguration of the US House of Representatives probe to begin the removal of President Donald Trump, US circles are awaiting the decision to summon former National Security Adviser John Bolton to testify at a secret hearing before House committees.

So far, Bolton's testimony has not been confirmed, especially after former National Security Council official Charles Cooperman refused to testify only with judicial permission.

Bolton has strong ties with Cooperman, prompting them to hire the same law firm headed by their close friend Sharks Cooper.

Cooperman justified his request that he faced a major dilemma, as the White House refuses to testify at a time when Congress is asking him to appear before the Judicial Committee to testify.

Cooperman was next to President Trump during his telephone conversation with the Ukrainian president on July 25.

The investigation revolves around the phone call and whether Trump linked military aid to Ukraine by opening corruption investigations related to Hunter Biden, the son of Democrat Joe Biden, a potential rival of Trump in the upcoming presidential election.

How Bolton became the hope of the Democrats?
Democrats want to call former national security adviser John Bolton to testify, especially after press reports indicated his anger and rejection of the content of Trump's telephone conversation with the Ukrainian president.

Bolton is also reportedly alarmed by the tremendous role Trump has given to his private lawyer Rudy Giuliani in planning to get Ukraine to launch an investigation into Biden.

The only time he spoke after leaving office last month, Bolton attacked Trump's foreign policy, while also aggressively attacking Democrats.

Democrats have traditionally seen Bolton as an advocate of war and a very extreme person, but he has become their greatest hope of providing information that harms Trump's position.

The results of the investigation so far indicate that Bolton opposed any delay in granting military assistance to Ukraine, despite attempts by Trump and his lawyer Giuliani to postpone it.

Bolton is well acquainted with the bureaucracy of the US political bureaucracy by virtue of his background as a law scholar at Yale, his former work at the Justice Department under President Ronald Reagan, and his accession to the State Department under George W. Bush. At the same time, his unwavering loyalty to Republicans represents a point where it is hard to predict what he will do.

A very difficult task
The White House defense relies on the "illegitimacy" of conducting investigations to isolate the president on the basis that the House of Representatives does not vote to initiate these decisions.

The White House says only Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the decision.

The White House is opposed to Bolton's testimony relying on the protection of the "executive powers", led by the secrecy of his conversations with his top aides.

He argues that Bolton's testimony will damage the president's current and future powers, especially when making foreign policy decisions.

Recourse to the courts to force witnesses to appear before Congressional committees is a significant risk. This position is complicated by the Democrats' task because the consequences are not guaranteed.

Pelosi has so far refused to vote on the start of segregation proceedings, and refuses to declassify witness hearings before House committees and conduct them behind closed doors.

On the other hand, the US president has the right to keep his discussions with his senior advisers confidential and not to Congress, and to ask members of his administration and aides not to speak to Congress.

A number of Democrats believe they already have evidence to allow formal removal of the president, especially after testimony by diplomat William Taylor that Trump had tied aid to Ukraine's opening of an investigation into Biden.

Taylor confirmed to the House of Representatives that he objected to the linkage, but Gordon Sundland, US ambassador to the European Union and Trump's personal friend, told him that the aid is not linked to the opening of Ukraine's investigation into Biden.

Republicans reject Taylor's testimony, seeing him as far from any direct contact with the president, and that his sources of information indirectly from the White House, and say he did not attend the phone call between the two presidents.

This situation doubles the importance of Bolton's testimony and that of his assistant for Ukraine.

The role of the judiciary and the absence of precedents
The development and acceleration of events point to an increased role for the judiciary in Trump's isolation investigations. A federal judge ordered the Justice Department to hand over evidence of the grand jury that was withheld in the report of special investigator Robert Mueller to the House Judiciary Committee, and set the date for the handover of information by October 30.

Such a decision is an important step in the House of Representatives investigation aimed at isolating the president.

A judicial decision on the testimony of Cooperman, who missed his summons to the Judicial Committee on Monday, is expected.

The nature of the decision would have a major impact on the appearance of the rest of Trump's top aides before Congressional investigative committees, particularly John Bolton.

The court may take months before deciding on the matter, and the aggrieved party may appeal to the Supreme Constitutional Court, which will prolong the waiting period.

US legal norms provide no indication of the direction of the court's decision in these cases. There were no similar cases in the Nixon removal process or the attempt to remove President Clinton.