Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Monday dismissed the notion of issuing former national security adviser John Bolton a subpoena in the Senate’s impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, saying the inquiry should be based on prior testimony.
“Worth repeating. The testimony & evidence considered in a Senate impeachment trial should be the same testimony & evidence the House relied upon when they passed the Articles of Impeachment,” Rubio tweeted. Our job is to vote on what the House passed,not to conduct an open ended inquiry.”
Bolton, who previously complied with a White House directive not to cooperate in the inquiry, earlier Monday released a statement confirming that he would comply with a Senate subpoena to testify in the trial.
“I have concluded that, if the Senate issues a subpoena for my testimony, I am prepared to testify,” Bolton said in a statement on his website.
“It now falls to the Senate to fulfill its constitutional obligation to try impeachments, and it does not appear possible that a final judicial resolution of the still-unanswered constitutional questions can be obtained before the Senate acts,” Bolton wrote. “Accordingly, since my testimony is once again at issue, I have had to resolve the serious competing issues as best I could, based on careful consideration and study.”
Democrats are insistent on hearing from witnesses within the Trump administration.