“My encouragement would be: If John Bolton’s got something to say, there’s plenty of microphones all over the country that he should step forward and start talking about it right now.”

“I think getting that information first-hand would be really important for us,” Lankford said on Facebook after the second day of White House defense arguments in the impeachment trial of the president.

U.S. Sen. James Lankford said Monday that senators should be given access to a manuscript written by former national security advisor John Bolton that reportedly bolsters the argument that President Donald Trump withheld aid to Ukraine to force an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden.

In the meantime, Lankford said, senators should get access to the manuscript even though it’s going through a screening process to determine whether it contains classified information. All members of Congress have clearances to read classified information, Lankford said.

“That’s a minimum amount that we should actually be able to get and I am encouraging the White House, anybody that I can talk to to say: That manuscript is pertinent and we should get access to that manuscript to see what they’re actually saying,” Lankford said.

“We still have quite a few days before we have to decide on witnesses and about testimony. There will be more that will continue to be able to come out to be able to make that decision. As I’ve said all along, the decision about witnesses and additional testimony and additional evidence comes at the end of the trial. If all the questions are answered, we don’t need it. If the questions are not answered, then we may.”

Lankford’s comments came a day after the New York Times reported that the manuscript for a book Bolton has written includes a recounting of a conversation in which Trump told the former advisor that he would continue to withhold aid until Ukraine conducted the investigations he sought, including one regarding Joe Biden’s son’s service on the board of a natural gas company in Ukraine.