Posted on 01/10/2020 4:00:11 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
President Trump strongly indicated he will try to block former national security adviser John Bolton from testifying in a Senate impeachment trial that could start as soon as next week.
"I think you have to, for the sake of the office," Trump said during an interview on Friday with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who asked if he would invoke executive privilege.
Trump, who said earlier this week he would consult his lawyers on the issue of executive privilege, claimed he personally had "no problem" with Bolton testifying but argued that he has to consider the precedent it would set for presidential privilege and how much a commander in chief would be able to confide in advisers.
"You can’t be in the White House as president — future, I’m talking about future, any future presidents — and have a security adviser, anybody having to do with security, and legal, and other things," he said.
Bolton, 71, issued a statement Monday saying he is willing to testify, but only if subpoenaed by the Republican-controlled Senate, marking a shift from his refusal to testify before House investigators on orders from the White House.
There has been debate about whether Bolton could offer damaging information to Trump and whether the president can even exert executive privilege to block his testimony.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, announced Friday she’s preparing to send over two articles of impeachment charging Trump with abuse of power in dealing with Ukraine and obstruction of Congress.
So far, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has rejected demands from Democrats to approve a pretrial witness list and said he’s got the backing of 51 GOP lawmakers to approve rules postponing consideration of witnesses until midtrial.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Not English.
Just giving you a hard time.
I figure Bolton said he wanted to speak because he knew the president would prevent him from doing so under “presidential privilege.” I see that as a good jerking the Dem’s lease by Bolton.
“think what he could do with a Trump legislature!”
... in which the Speaker of the House is not Paul Ryan or John Boehner.
The president doesn’t want him to testify. That’s good enough for me.
I trust the president’s decision.
“It seems tendentiously silly to say executive privilege allows a president to prevent a Senate deciding whether to remove that president from office from hearing the witnesses it wants to hear.”
Does anyone here think that the constitution authorizes the President of the United States to use executive privilege to prevent the Senate from conducting its impeachment trial of that president as it wishes to? If so, why? (I assume it goes without saying that Bill Clinton, or Barack Obama, or any future president could use executive privilege in the same way people here think it can be used by President Trump.)
It seems to me that Mr. Bolton could refuse to testify if he wished (perhaps not without consequences if he were subpoenaed), but the president cannot prohibit him from doing so.
Or am I misinterpreting the claim being made here?
It’s not good if the Dems want him to testify.
They’ll just put this on the list for his next impeachment.
They’ll just put this on the list for his next impeachment.
The only way Bolton will testify is over the dead bodies of Trump’s lawyers.
Executive privilege is an important principle to protect. I don’t care if it makes the President look bad.
He can’t allow a precedent to be set for the future.
The problem I see here is the turncoat Obama care scumbag justice Roberts is residing
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