Senate Republicans are under pressure to allow witnesses and new documents into President Donald Trump's trial after revelations that the former national security adviser's book undermines a key defense argument - that he never conditioned military aid to Ukraine on a request that its authorities investigate political rival Joe Biden.
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, a frequent critic of Trump, said it was increasingly likely that at least four Republican senators would vote to call John Bolton to testify, which would give Democrats the votes they need to call him.
The New York Times cited the manuscript of Bolton's unpublished book, which says Trump told him he wanted to freeze military aid to Ukraine until Kiev helped him with investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Bolton's book is due to be published on March 17.
If confirmed, the report would add weight to Democrats' accusations that Trump used $391 million in aid -- approved by Congress to help Ukraine fight pro-Russian separatists -- to succeed in smearing a domestic political rival. Biden is the favorite for the Democratic nomination to take on Trump in the November 3 presidential election.
Trump denied yesterday that he told Bolton he intended to use the aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens on unsubstantiated corruption allegations.
Hunter Biden worked for a Ukrainian energy company when his father was vice president of the United States.
"If John Bolton said that, he only did it to sell a book," Trump tweeted.
Bolton left office in September, saying he had resigned, while Trump said he had fired him.
"I think it's increasingly likely that other Republicans will join us in thinking that John Bolton should be heard," Romney told reporters.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives impeached Trump last month on charges of abuse of office and obstruction of Congress, setting the stage for a Senate trial.
Trump is expected to be acquitted in the 100-member Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats and a two-thirds vote is needed to remove the president. No Republican senator supported his removal.
In arguments at the trial, Democrats said last Sunday that Trump should be impeached for encouraging Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 US election.
Yesterday, they requested that the Senate subpoena Bolton to testify.
"It creates another hole in the president's defense," said House member Adam Schiff, head of the team of "managers" who are acting as prosecutors in Trump's trial.
"I don't know how any senator, Democrat or Republican, can explain that they want to get to the truth in this trial and not want to hear from a witness who had a direct conversation about the central charge in the impeachment counts," Schiff told CNN.
The issue of calling new witnesses - including Bolton - could be resolved in a vote in the Senate on Friday or Saturday, Reuters writes. Many Republicans, however, want a speedy trial without new witnesses. The White House has ordered current and former administration officials not to provide testimony or documents to the House investigation.
According to the New York Times, top aides, including Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, have been pressuring Trump for weeks to send aid to Ukraine.
However, in a conversation with Bolton in August 2019, Trump said he preferred not to send aid until Ukrainian officials turned over all the material they had about the investigation involving Biden as well as Hillary Clinton supporters in Ukraine.
If the senators do not approve the new witnesses and evidence, the Senate could already vote at the end of this week on whether to impeach Trump.
In that case, the trial could be over before the first of a series of caucuses for the presidential nomination in Iowa on Feb. 3 and before Trump is scheduled to deliver his annual State of the Nation address to Congress on Feb. 4.
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