Bolton warned lawyers over ‘hand grenade’ Giuliani

WASHINGTON: The White House’s alleged effort to pressure Ukraine so alarmed former national security advisor John Bolton that he alerted a lawyer, his former aide said on Monday, according to US media. Bolton also warned that President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who has emerged as the point man in the president’s alleged drive to pressure Ukraine to dig up dirt on Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, is “a hand grenade who’s going to blow everyone up,” his aide Fiona Hill told lawmakers, according to the New York Times.

The remark, which was also reported by NBC News, came after Trump’s former top Russia advisor Hill sat for an hours-long closed door deposition before US lawmakers probing whether to impeach the president. AFP could not independently verify the report. Following a “sharp exchange” with US ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, who was working with Giuliani on the pressure campaign, Bolton instructed Hill to notify a National Security Council lawyer, according to the Times. Referring to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Bolton also said that “I am not part of whatever drug deal Rudy and Mulvaney are cooking up,” the Times reported, citing two sources familiar with Hill’s deposition. Her testimony came after allegations that Trump pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens in a July 25 phone call, which sparked an impeachment inquiry by the House of Representatives.