OOOOPS. WaPo: Cipollone "might have been a fact witness to the scheme for which Trump was impeached" [View all]

[Miles Archer]

New Bolton revelations show Trump’s trial is more corrupt than we thought

More than two months before he asked Ukraine’s president to investigate his political opponents, President Trump directed John R. Bolton, then his national security adviser, to help with his pressure campaign to extract damaging information on Democrats from Ukrainian officials, according to an unpublished manuscript by Mr. Bolton.

Mr. Trump gave the instruction, Mr. Bolton wrote, during an Oval Office conversation in early May that included the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, the president’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, who is now leading the president’s impeachment defense.

Mr. Trump told Mr. Bolton to call Volodymyr Zelensky, who had recently won election as president of Ukraine, to ensure Mr. Zelensky would meet with Mr. Giuliani, who was planning a trip to Ukraine to discuss the investigations that the president sought, in Mr. Bolton’s account. Mr. Bolton never made the call, he wrote.

First, this shows that Trump’s chief counsel for his impeachment defense, Pat Cipollone, might have been a fact witness to the very corrupt scheme for which Trump was impeached — and for which the Senate is now set to acquit him.

Stephen Gillers, a professor at the New York University School of Law, told us that this raises serious questions about the propriety of Cipollone’s role as Trump’s chief counsel. As Gillers wrote in a recent piece, Cipollone had an obligation, at a minimum, to disclose all his own knowledge of the facts surrounding the case.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/31/new-bolton-revelations-show-trumps-trial-is-more-corrupt-than-we-thought/