‘I Was Not Aware of What Rudy Was Doing’: Former Trump Adviser John Bolton Condemns Giuliani’s Ukraine Call

John Bolton denied having any knowledge of a call between Rudy Giuliani and Ukraine officials in 2019, which occurred while Bolton served as national security adviser to President Donald Trump.

This week, CNN obtained audio of a call between Giuliani, Andriy Yermak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Kurt Volker, a former United States diplomat who later testified in Trump’s first impeachment trial.

While sitting down with Bolton on Tuesday, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell played a recording of the call, which reportedly occurred days before Trump’s infamous call with Zelensky.

The conversation between the two presidents, during which Trump is heard telling Zelenskiy to contact Giuliani just moments before asking the Ukrainian president to “find out about” Biden’s son Hunter, ultimately prompted Trump’s first impeachment.

“Rudy’s role — you were aware of it at the time? How do you explain Rudy Giuliani pressuring the Ukrainian government this way on behalf of President Trump?” Mitchell asked Bolton, who controversially decided not to testify during the first impeachment trial.

“Unfortunately, what I was aware of at the time was how much I was not aware of what Rudy was doing,” Bolton said. “Having listened to that excerpt from the call and a couple of others doesn’t surprise me and it represents the impermissible mixing of official U.S. government policy with private political policy.”

Bolton went on to call Trump’s disregard for standard and official political practice while president “very troubling.”

“It’s one of many examples of President Trump going outside official channels of communication to say the least, in pursuit of his own political objectives, but mixing in government interests — that is impermissible and, indeed, I think, impeachable,” he said.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!