Barr’s suspicions about Trump’s conduct, according to Bolton’s manuscript, are specific. “Mr. Barr singled out Mr. Trump’s conversations with Mr. Xi about the Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE, which agreed in 2017 to plead guilty and pay heavy fines for violating American sanctions on doing business with North Korea, Iran and other countries,” the Times reports. “A year later, Mr. Trump lifted the sanctions over objections from his own advisers and Republican lawmakers.” That was not all: “Mr. Barr also cited remarks Mr. Trump made to Mr. Erdogan in 2018 about the investigation of Halkbank, Turkey’s second-largest state-owned bank.”

Barr and Bolton, in other words, might have information regarding corrupt schemes extending far beyond Ukraine and having nothing to do with the Bidens. They are witnesses to a presidency that for reasons not readily apparent (financial self-interest? emotional dependence on the praise of strongmen?) regularly subordinates U.S. interests to the interests of dictators.

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Barr is not the only one who has much to lose if Bolton testifies. Bolton’s testimony might implicate John Eisenberg, the White House attorney who Bolton’s staff members were told to consult, and his boss, White House counsel Pat Cipollone. Assisting in a coverup of illegal activity not only strips Trump of an executive privilege with regard to these witnesses but also raises the question as to whether they are participants in a scheme to extort Ukraine.

Then there is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has continually denied knowledge of any nefarious activities and did nothing to protect former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. Bolton must certainly have discussed Ukraine with him as well. This raises several more questions: Did Pompeo facilitate the scheme by knowingly firing the Ukraine ambassador to further the scheme from Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani? Has he lied to the public about his role? What documents is he withholding from the Senate?

Next on the list of administration figures whom Bolton could make squirm is acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Bolton certainly has information regarding Mulvaney’s role in holding up the aid and the cover stories (Burden-sharing! Corruption!) used to justify freezing aid.

We once speculated that sooner or later, Bolton would figure out that playing the role of John Dean — the once-loyal adviser to President Richard M. Nixon who pulled down the whole administration — is much better for one’s career and book sales than clamming up is.

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Bolton is already, as one would expect, getting hammered by the Trumpist crowd, which decries his disloyalty. Bolton must have known this was coming and apparently has decided to leave the Trump cocoon. He has no future with them and no place in the Trump cult. What Bolton does have is the truth, likely backed up by notes that speak to Trump’s impeachable acts, ignorance about foreign policy, affinity for conspiracy theories, oddly sympathetic view of Russia and determination to spout Russian propaganda. It is not Giuliani who is the grenade ready to blow up the administration; it is Bolton.