Bolton was reportedly so concerned about pressure being put on Ukraine to look into the president’s potential political rival that he flagged the issue to a senior aide, asking her to tell White House Lawyers, The New York Times reported on Monday.
And his efforts to distance himself from the alleged activities were widely discussed on social media—with some expressing surprise that Bolton, who had previously argued for pre-emptive attacks on North Korea and has been criticized for his aggressive foreign policy views, was emerging as the hero of the piece.
Indeed, former White House aide Andrei Cherny, currently the CEO of financial firm Aspiration, commented that Bolton’s involvement painted him as the “Severus Snape” of the story—a reference to the Harry Potter series in which Snape finally emerges as a hero, having been previously painted as a villain by author J.K. Rowling.
“This plot twist, where John Bolton turns out to be good, really strains the credibility of this entire season,” commented Ian Millhiser.
Matthew Miller added: “When John Bolton emerges as the hero of the story, you know the rest of the cast are some real next level villains.”
“Everyone knew John Bolton was gonna try to unilaterally take down a government, it’s just surprising it’s this one,” Twitter user Patrick Monahan wrote.
“John Bolton knew it was wrong for the @realDonaldTrump Administration to pressure Ukraine to get dirt on an American political opponent. Many Republicans still lack the spine to say publicly what they know to be true: what @POTUS did was wrong. No one is above the law,” added Democrat congressman Ted Lieu.
Bolton’s comments emerged in testimony given by the aide, Fiona Hill, who said Bolton had flagged a back-channel attempt by Giuliani, Mulvaney, and Sondland to encourage Ukraine to look into political rivals including Democrat Joe Biden, who is the subject of a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that is at the center of the impeachment inquiry.
According to Hill’s testimony, Bolton told her to tell the National Security Council’s attorney: “I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up,” having earlier said in a conversation with her: “Giuliani’s a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up.”
During 10 hours of testimony on Monday, Hill, who was previously the White House’s top Russia expert, described Giuliani and those close to him as attempting to run their own foreign policy plans, The Times reported.
Sondland is set to testify on Thursday.
