Trump Wants Pompeo, Bolton, and Mulvaney to Testify in Impeachment Probe

National Security Advisor John R. Bolton (L), acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney (C), and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listen while President Donald Trump announces an agreement with Guatemala in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on July 26, 2019. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump said on Nov. 26 that he wants key witnesses to testify in the impeachment inquiry but is fighting a battle in the courts to defend future presidents from being compromised by a partisan impeachment process.

“The D.C. Wolves and Fake News Media are reading far too much into people being forced by Courts to testify before Congress. I am fighting for future Presidents and the Office of the President. Other than that, I would actually like people to testify,” the president wrote on Twitter.

The president noted that he wants Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Office of Management and Budget Director and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and former National Security Adviser John Bolton to testify in the Democrat-run impeachment hearings.

“John Bolton is a patriot and may know that I held back the money from Ukraine because it is considered a corrupt country, & I wanted to know why nearby European countries weren’t putting up money also,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

“Likewise, I would love to have Mike Pompeo, Rick Perry, Mick Mulvaney and many others testify about the phony Impeachment Hoax. It is a Democrat Scam that is going nowhere but, future Presidents should in no way be compromised. What has happened to me should never happen to another President!”

Perry and Mulvaney were directly involved in the issues related to the impeachment inquiry, while Pompeo and Bolton could shed additional light on relevant events since they have direct access to the president and high-level meetings. Perry has already told his side of the story in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, and Mulvaney fielded questions from the media during a White House briefing and later issued a clarifying statement.

Trump issued the comment after a federal judge ruled that former White House counsel Don McGahn must comply with a subpoena for his testimony issued by the House Judiciary Committee. The ruling could have an effect on the outstanding subpoenas for Pompeo, Mulvaney, and Perry. The House Intelligence Committee didn’t issue a subpoena to Bolton after his attorney threatened to sue.

Mulvaney’s role is pivotal because he executed Trump’s order to place a hold on aid to Ukraine as early as July 3. No witness has yet come forward to substantiate an allegation by Democrats that Trump leveraged the hold on aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to take actions that could help Trump politically.

At the time of his firing in 2016, former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was investigating Burisma, a gas company that paid Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, to sit on its board of directors. Joe Biden has bragged about forcing Shokin’s ouster by withholding $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine.

Mulvaney has said that the hold on aid was placed to make sure the money was well spent, especially considering Ukraine’s notorious problem with corruption. Trump also wanted to find out why other countries weren’t paying as much to support Ukraine. Mulvaney’s comments caused a media frenzy after he said that Trump has discussed “the corruption related to the DNC server” in relation to Ukraine, with some outlets alleging that comment was proof that Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate the Democrats and the Bidens.

“No, the money held up had absolutely nothing to do with Biden,” Mulvaney said in the same briefing. “There’s no question.”