In a book, Bolton says Trump asked for his help to pressure Ukraine

The American newspaper  The New York Times  published on Friday the 31st a report detailing more excerpts from the memoir manuscript of former national security adviser John Bolton, saying that the President of the United States , Donald Trump , started his campaign of pressure against Ukraine two months before directly threatening Ukraine's leader Vladimir Zelensky.

Bolton's manuscript brings the first evidence that senior White House officials were involved in Trump's abuse of power, the main complaint that the president faces in the trial of his impeachment . The revelation comes as US senators discuss this Friday whether to call new witnesses.

Bolton's call was long awaited by Democrats, although it did not occur during the process in the Chamber of Deputies. Republicans refused to summon the former adviser. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said he did not have enough votes to block Bolton's call. However, it is not yet known what the outcome of the current plenary session will be. Republican Lisa Murkowski, who previously supported Bolton's summons, backed down.

In May 2019, Trump asked Bolton, during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House, to help pressure Ukraine to investigate the affairs of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter in the country. Biden is his potential competitor in the November presidential election in the United States. The call to Zelensky took place two months later.

At the same meeting in the Oval Office, Trump's personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, and two other White House officials were present: the chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, and Pat Cipollone, the president's adviser. Cipollene leads Trump's defense at the Senate trial.

Bolton was reportedly tasked with calling Zelensky and organizing a meeting between the Ukrainian and Giuliani to negotiate the investigation against the Biden. According to the newspaper, the former adviser never made the call.

Between the publication of the first report on the topic, on Sunday 28, and this Friday, the White House tried to prohibit the book from being printed and published because there would be "a significant amount of classified information". Among them, some would be “top secret”, capable of “reasonably causing exceptionally serious damage to the public security” of the United States.

But Bolton's lawyer, Charles Cooper, has reported that the former adviser does not believe that in his manuscript, which is under review by the White House, there are compromising state secrets. Cooper asked the Presidency to specify which passages were considered to be classified information.

The impeachment case against Trump was launched in September 2019 after an anonymous whistleblower handed over to the House Intelligence Committee a report on the president's conversation with the Ukrainian leader in July.

Trump would have pressured Zelensky to open an investigation or just make a public statement that his country would investigate the Bidens for corruption. If fulfilled, the American would release $ 391 million in military aid to Ukraine and organize a Zelensky state visit to the White House. The American president denies all accusations and says he is undergoing a "witch hunt".