Democrat prosecution chief Adam Schiff called on the US Senate to summon former White House adviser John Bolton to testify during President Donald Trump's trial, after extracts from a prospective book by Bolton revealed that Trump told him he wanted to continue to freeze security aid to Ukraine.
Schiff said in a post on Twitter that the reasons are now known to prevent Bolton from testifying by the White House.
He called on Senators to demand that Bolton be called to testify if there was a fair parliamentary trial for the president.
This came after the New York Times said it had seen unpublished excerpts from a prospective book for the former adviser, adding that Bolton and Trump's top aides urged the president to release the aid approved by Congress, but Trump told Bolton last August that he would prefer not to send aid to Ukraine Until he received all the material he had about an investigation against his opponent Joe Biden.
The newspaper pointed out that this information would undermine the defenses of Trump's legal team that the aid freeze was aimed at fighting corruption in Ukraine, not targeting Biden.
Bolton had sent a copy of what was written in the White House as part of a regular review by current and former officials before their books were formally published, and this gives an opportunity for White House attorneys to have a first-hand look at what Bolton will say if he is called up to testify in the Senate.
Bolton's lawyer, Charles Cooper, confirmed in a statement that the New York Times report is correct, and that it reveals that the pre-publication review process was marred by corruption, and that information was leaked by other people not involved in the manuscript review.
Bolton has said he is ready to testify if the Senate summons him despite White House opposition, as his testimony could provide new evidence of Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine.
Schiff said yesterday that he believed the president intentionally threatened him when he wrote on Twitter that he had "not paid the price" yet. Trump's parliamentary trial is set to resume on Monday.