Bolton Book Reportedly Says He Raised Concerns About Trump Doing ‘Personal Favors’ for Erdogan, Xi Jinping
The New York Times has dropped another big detail from John Bolton’s new book concerning the president’s interactions with foreign leaders.
Per the Times, in his book Bolton details how he spoke directly to Attorney General Bill Barr about his concerns that President Donald Trump was doing “personal favors” for the leaders of Turkey and China — Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Xi Jinping.
And Barr responded, apparently, “pointing to a pair of Justice Department investigations of companies in those countries and said he was worried that Mr. Trump had created the appearance that he had undue influence over what would typically be independent inquiries.”
Bolton’s book reportedly features details of what Barr laid out:
Mr. Bolton wrote in the manuscript that 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. A year later, Mr. Trump lifted the sanctions over objections from his own advisers and Republican lawmakers.
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. The Justice Department was scrutinizing Halkbank on fraud and money-laundering charges for helping Iran evade sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department.
Bolton’s book, of course, also reportedly contains his account of how the president connected the Ukraine aid hold to investigations he wanted. There’s been growing pressure for BOlton to be called as a witness in the impeachment trial as a result.
from Mediaite https://ift.tt/2RuGttv
0 comments