John Bolton, the former US national security adviser, described Donald Trump’s personal lawyer as “a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up” during an alleged campaign to coerce political help from Ukraine, according to reports.

Mr Bolton was angry about Rudy Giuliani’s role in the apparent effort to persuade Kiev to investigate Mr Trump’s political opponents, congressional impeachment investigators were told on Monday.

In another conversation he is said to have told a top adviser that “I am not part of whatever drug deal” other Trump allies were “cooking up”.

Both The New York Times and The Washington Post carried reports about what Fiona Hill, the White House’s former Russia adviser, told the House impeachment inquiry. The newspapers based their reports on the accounts of people familiar with her testimony.

Ms Hill was reportedly told by Mr Bolton to notify White House lawyers of the shadow foreign policy being operated in Ukraine by Mr Giuliani and Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU.

Everyone Trump has fired or forced out Show all 13 1 /13 Everyone Trump has fired or forced out Everyone Trump has fired or forced out John Bolton Trump claimed to have fired Bolton, his national security adviser, while Bolton claimed he offered to resign. An anonymous White House source that Bolton's departure came as a result of the national security adviser working too independently of the president AFP/Getty Everyone Trump has fired or forced out Anthony Scaramucci Scaramucci lasted only six days in his role as Trump's communications director before being fired by John Kelly, the incoming chief of staff Getty Everyone Trump has fired or forced out Rick Perry Rick Perry announced his resignation just as he became embroiled in the president's impeachment scandal. The White House said Mr Perry was asked by Donald Trump to work with Rudy GIuliani in regards to Ukraine. AP Everyone Trump has fired or forced out Rex Tillerson Tillerson, Trump's first secretary of state, was fired after a series of clashes with the president over policy Getty Everyone Trump has fired or forced out James Mattis Mattis served as secretary of defense from the beginning of Trump's administration until retiring on 1 January 2019. However, the president later claimed that he had "essentially fired" Mattis Getty Everyone Trump has fired or forced out James Comey Comey was fired as director of the FBI early in Trump's presidency after serving in the role for four years prior. His dismissal is widely thought to have been related to the Russia investigation Getty Everyone Trump has fired or forced out Reince Priebus Priebus, Trump's first chief of staff, was forced out after six tumultuous months AFP/Getty Everyone Trump has fired or forced out David Shulkin Veterans affairs secretary Shulkin claims that he was fired, the White House claims that he resigned Getty Everyone Trump has fired or forced out John Kelly Kelly, Trump's second chief of staff, was forced out after 17 months in office. His departure was a confused affair though it is clear that Trump wanted Kelly out AFP/Getty Everyone Trump has fired or forced out Michael Flynn Flynn lasted 24 days as Trump's national security adviser before being fired for lying to the FBI Getty Everyone Trump has fired or forced out Lee Cisna Cisna served as director of citizen and immigration services between October 2017 and June 2019 before being asked to resign amid a major personnel change in the department of homeland security Everyone Trump has fired or forced out Madeline Westerhout Westerhout served as Trump's personal assistant after leaking private information about his family AFP/Getty Everyone Trump has fired or forced out Mira Ricardel Ricardel was forced out of her role as Deputy National Security Advisor after first lady Melania Trump publicly called for her to be fired

She added that the pair were apparently coordinating their efforts with Mick Mulvaney, Mr Trump’s acting chief of staff.

Mr Trump became embroiled in the impeachment inquiry after a whistleblower came forward with details of a 25 July phone call the president held with Volodymyr Zelensky, his opposite number in Ukraine, in which he appeared to threaten to withhold military aid if Kiev did not re-open an investigation into Joe Biden.

Mr Biden is a leading Democratic candidate to challenge Mr Trump for the presidency in 2020.

Three congressional committees have opened investigations into the president’s attempts to push Ukraine to dig up dirt on Mr Biden and his son Hunter, who had business dealings in the country.

Mr Giuliani faces a Tuesday deadline to produce documents subpoenaed by the House intelligence committee. The deadline loomed as the former New York City mayor told Reuters he had been paid $500,000 (£394,000) for work he carried out for Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-American businessman who was reportedly part of the campaign of pressure on Kiev and who was arrested last week on campaign finance charges.

On Tuesday, the former Republican presidential candidate responded to Mr Bolton, calling him “bitter”. According to NBC’s White House correspondent, Kristen Welker, he said: “I’m very disappointed that his bitterness drives him to attack a friend falsely. It’s really ironic that John Bolton is calling anyone else a hand grenade, when John is described by many as an atomic bomb.”

Mr Trump has derided the impeachment probe as a “scam”, and tweeted at the weekend that “Democrats are going to lose a lot of House Seats because of their Fraudulent use of Impeachment”.

He also threw his support behind Mr Giuliani, who he described on Saturday as “a great gentleman”, and tweeted that he “may seem a little rough around the edges sometimes, but he is also a great guy and wonderful lawyer”.