Democrats Consider Trading John Bolton’s Testimony for Hunter Biden’s

Several Senate Democrats have privately discussed allowing Republicans to call Hunter Biden as a witness at President Trump’s impeachment trial in exchange for the GOP agreeing to let former national security adviser John Bolton testify, The Washington Post reports.

Democrats have publicly rejected Republican calls for Joe Biden’s son to testify about his work in Ukraine but a small group of Senate Democrats is “sounding out colleagues” on whether to support a deal that would allow them to hear from Bolton and other administration officials.

The Democrats believe that calling Hunter Biden, and possibly even Joe Biden, to testify could “backfire” on the Republicans, according to The Post.

“If you want to give Joe Biden an opportunity to sit in the well of the Senate and answer the question, ‘Do you think the president acted appropriately?’ go right ahead,” Delaware Democrat Chris Coons told the outlet. “I can’t imagine a person more comfortable in the well of the Senate than a man who spent 36 years here as a United States senator.”

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said he may be open to the idea.

“If there are four Republicans who open the conversation about witnesses, then I assume there will be a negotiation that follows — but I can’t tell you where it goes,” he said.

Biden was at the center of Trump’s debunked conspiracy:

The Ukraine scheme that led to Trump’s impeachment was intended to root out damaging information predicated on the debunked conspiracy theory that Joe Biden had a Ukrainian prosecutor fired because he was investigating a Ukrainian energy firm whose board included Hunter Biden.

There is no evidence to corroborate Trump’s claims and Hunter Biden was never even accused of any wrongdoing in Ukraine.

“Whether I’d make a trade or not, I’d have to think about it, but the question is then: Well, how does that get us more information about the charges that have been put forth?” Montana Democrat Jon Tester told The Post, adding that Biden is immaterial to the trial.

Trump says no way:

Trump said on Wednesday that he would be fine with Bolton testifying but would not let him because it would be a national security concern.

"It's a national security problem,” he said. "He knows some of my thoughts. He knows what I think about leaders. What happens if he reveals how I feel about another leader and it's not positive ... it would make the job a lot harder."

 

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