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This is threatening a potential witness. And nothing new for the gangster mob in the White House.

For all of President Trump’s wailing about no one listening to his side and ongoing vitriol aimed at Democrats, it is once again a Republican who is causing problems for Trump. This Republican is Trump’s former National Security Adviser, John Bolton, who has written a book that was leaked to the press in which he says that Trump specifically withheld aid to Ukraine on the condition that they announce a bogus investigation into Biden.

And now the White House is threatening Bolton that he can’t publish his book as is. So much for Republicans wanting the truth out there:

WH letter to Bolton warning him against publication of his book as it is right now pic.twitter.com/dsICaKQuJe — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 29, 2020

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Tapper added:

2/ Invoking “federal law and the nondisclosure agreements” Bolton signed, NSC says his manuscript “appears to contain significant amounts of classified information” including at the TOP SECRET level 3/ which per Exec Order 13526 “reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave harm to the national security” of U.S. …NSC says without that info deleted “the manuscript may not be published”

Trump is claiming national security is at risk, but the problem with this defense is that he was impeached partly for threatening our national security with his abuse of power. And so national security issues will naturally come into play.

Jennifer Ruben pointed out that there is no enforceable NDA for a government employee.

BTW, there is no

enforceable NDA for a govt employee. If it is classified he can be prosecuted (yay, right!) but there is no civil liability/NDA nor is there an injunction on speech (See Pentagon papers). Bolton is a VERY good lawyer and knows all this. — Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) January 29, 2020

Republicans don’t want to hear from their own party members who served Trump, and that should be the big tell to those who don’t follow these proceedings closely that something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Senator Schumer (D-NY) took on the Republican argument against witnesses like Bolton on Wednesday during a press conference, “But the Republican argument is wrong. It won’t take too long. If my Republican colleagues vote with us to subpoena relevant witnesses and documents, there’s no reason for a protracted trial. The four sets of documents we’ve requested have already been collected. They’re sitting in boxes at the White House, the State Department, OMB, and the Pentagon. They’re ours for the asking. Mr. Bolton has already said he’d testify. There’s no reason for delays if the Senate summons Bolton, Mulvaney, Blair and Duffey.”

A legitimate trial would, of course, require witnesses with first-hand knowledge of the issue, as Bolton has, and a legitimate political party would want to protect their own country and the people’s right to free elections.

That is not what the Republican Party is doing, as the GOP-led Senate stains its reputation for a generation cheerleading for the most corrupt president this nation has ever had.