White House may assert executive privilege to block former National Security Adviser Bolton from testifying during Senate impeachment trial, several Republicans tell NBCNews.
"There are things that you can't do from the standpoint of executive privilege. You have to maintain that,” Trump said."You can't have him explaining all of your statements about national security concerning Russia, China, and North Korea — everything — we just can't do that."A source familiar with the trial planning confirmed the White House would likely want Bolton to testify behind closed doors.
Some Republicans also said an attempt to get Bolton to testify could lead to a lengthy delay in the proceedings.Bolton"raises all sorts of issues. We're not a court of law, and if there is a claim of executive privilege or some national security privilege, one possibility would be that we'd need to adjourn the Senate trial for weeks if not months to allow that to be litigated through the district court, court of appeals, maybe even the Supreme Court," Sen.
Another Republican, Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, suggested the testimony wouldn't be worth halting the trial. "I don’t want to see the trial stop for a week or two while we wait for a court to decide if somebody can testify," Cramer told NBC.
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