John Bolton apparently wanted nothing to do with Giuliani’s Ukrainian investigation, describing Giuliani as a “hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up”:
DC EXAMINER – During Monday’s testimony that covered Hill’s time as senior director for European and Russian affairs, she also revealed that Giuliani had been a primary catalyst in efforts from the White House to encourage Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Hill noted that Giuliani had worked closely with Gordon Sondland, an ambassador to the European Union, and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney as a rogue foreign policy operative.
“I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up,” Bolton said to Hill, according to witnesses of her Monday testimony. “Giuliani’s a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up.”
Hill said Bolton directed her to notify chief White House counsel of the activity from the three men. She also described a confrontation with Sondland in which he informed her that he was in charge of dealings with Ukraine, a claim that Hill compared to Secretary of State Alexander Haig declaring himself “in control” of the U.S. government in 1981 after an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
Hill claimed that Sondland defended his declaration as something that came directly from the president.
Giuliani responded to this report with a statement to Fox News, saying he was disappointed in Bolton:
President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday said he was “disappointed” in former National Security Adviser John Bolton, after reports emerged that he had called Giuliani a “hand grenade” over his Ukraine investigations — and told a top aide to alert a lawyer in the National Security Council.
“I am disappointed in John,” Giuliani said in a statement to Fox News. “I’m not sure he realizes I received all this evidence as part of my representation of the president. It was all part of the evidence, and suppression of evidence, involving Ukrainian collusion and the origin of some of the false information against the president.”
That may be, but it sounds to me like what Bolton was seeing was an inherent conflict of interest on the part of Mulvaney, Sondland, and Giuliani, with respect to Trump, and he wanted nothing to do with it. Can’t say as I blame him. It doesn’t look good on the administration if Mulvaney and Sondland were actively trying to help Giuliani’s cause to get Ukraine to investigate Biden.
But remember who were dealing with. Democrats like to leak selective portions of testimony to create a narrative and there could be more to this story that would come out with the transcript.