Bolton Protested Ukraine Pressure Campaign, Called Giuliani A ‘Hand Grenade’

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton asked White House aide Fiona Hill to use her testimony to House investigators to help distance him from the Ukraine pressure campaign, the New York Times reported.

According to two people familiar with the Monday testimony who spoke to the Times, Bolton asked Hill to tell the House committees that he was “not part of whatever drug deal (Gordon) Sondland and (Mick) Mulvaney are cooking up.” Hill testified that Bolton was so bothered by the pressure campaign efforts in the White House that he asked Hill to alert White House lawyers about the dealings.

Bolton reportedly got into a confrontation with U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland — before the infamous call with the president of Ukraine — and he asked Hill to inform the top lawyer for the National Security Council about a “rogue effort” by Sondland, Mulvaney and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, according to the Times. Hill also told investigators that Bolton referred to Giuliani as a “hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up” during an earlier conversation.

The news is just the latest to drip from Hill’s explosive testimony on Monday before the House committees leading the impeachment inquiry. Hill, who was the senior director for European and Russian affairs at the time, detailed her knowledge of Giuliani’s efforts to skirt official channels to pressure Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rival former Vice President Joe Biden.