Marco Rubio Swats Down Bolton Impeachment Testimony: Not the Senate’s Job to ‘Conduct an Open Ended Inquiry’
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) slammed the door on the idea of having John Bolton testify as part of the Senate’s impeachment trial for President Donald Trump.
The former United Nations ambassador and ex-Trump national security adviser released a statement on Monday saying he’s prepared to testify if the Senate compels him with a subpoena. Democrats think Bolton could be a major person of interest if he gets involved in the impeachment process, due to the first-hand revelations he may provide about the Trump administration’s efforts to coerce the Ukrainian government into investigating the president’s political foes.
Whether Bolton provides any new information about the Ukraine scandal remains to be seen. However, in terms of whether he’s subpoenaed into testifying, Rubio tweeted that he won’t support that because the trial should be based on the same testimony and evidence from the House’s existing articles of impeachment, plus its “not [the senate’s job] to conduct an open ended inquiry.”
Worth repeating.
The testimony & evidence considered in a Senate impeachment trial should be the same testimony & evidence the House relied upon when they passed the Articles of Impeachment.
Our job is to vote on what the House passed,not to conduct an open ended inquiry.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 6, 2020
Rubio affirmed his position while speaking to reporters:
.@marcorubio tells @mkraju he would not vote to subpoena for testimony of @AmbJohnBolton bc “I believe you should be constrained by the information that those articles (of impeachment) are based on.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 6, 2020
