Mulvaney's move to join impeachment testimony lawsuit rankles Bolton allies
Source: Washington Post
White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s last-minute effort to join a lawsuit that could determine whether senior administration officials testify in the impeachment inquiry was an unwelcome surprise to former top national security aides, highlighting internal divisions among President Trump’s advisers in the face of the probe. Former national security adviser John Bolton’s advisers and allies were taken aback to learn late Friday that Mulvaney had gone to court seeking to join a separation-of-powers lawsuit filed against Trump and the House leadership, according to people familiar with their views, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing inquiry.
The suit was filed by Bolton’s former deputy, Charles Kupperman, who is asking a federal judge to determine whether a congressional subpoena takes precedent over a White House order not to comply with the inquiry. Bolton is willing to testify if the judge rules in favor of the House, The Washingon Post previously reported. People close to Bolton and Kupperman said the two were flabbergasted by Mulvaney’s surprise request to join the lawsuit because they and others on the national security team considered Mulvaney a critical player in the effort to get the Ukrainian government to pursue investigations into Trump’s political opponents.
Bolton views Mulvaney as a key participant in the pressure campaign, a situation that the then-national security adviser referred to derisively as “a drug deal,” according to congressional testimony by his aides. The two men were barely on speaking terms when Bolton left his post in September, according to White House officials. Charles Cooper, a lawyer for Bolton, declined to comment on Mulvaney’s effort to join the suit, saying only, “We will provide our answer in court.” William Pittard, an attorney for Mulvaney, said the chief of staff is simply seeking to resolve the competing demands of two branches of government. “As acting chief of staff, Mr. Mulvaney intends to follow any lawful order of the president and has no reason to think that the order at issue is unlawful — other than the fact the House has threatened him with charges of contempt and obstruction for following it,” Pittard said.
Lawrence Tribe, a constitutional law expert at Harvard Law School, said Mulvaney’s last-minute move could be an attempt to give himself legal cover to put off the House demand. By attaching himself to the Kupperman case, Mulvaney could avoid having to testify in the House inquiry for months if the suit is appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. “I think he’s trying to be shielded from having to obey his legal duty to comply with an obviously valid subpoena,” Tribe said.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mulvaneys-move-to-join-impeachment-testimony-lawsuit-rankles-bolton-allies/2019/11/10/06f3553a-0332-11ea-8bab-0fc209e065a8_story.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
he lost "favor" from shithole.
The only reason why he still there is because of the "evangelists", but he is no longer in the in crowd. He is now an outcast.
Hmmmmmmmm, sounds like what happened to Bolton.
was ever part of Drumpf's "in crowd". I think after all the high-profile exits of previous NSC advisors, someone name-dropped him as a "well-known" entity with GOP street cred, who could stop the tongues from wagging about the dysfunctional west wing... and apparently Drumpf went along with that as a squirrel! moment in order to move onto something else. Meanwhile I think Bolton took the position for purely opportunistic reasons and figured he could do his usual massaging of policy because he had been there done that in past administrations and was an "expert". But he obviously discovered how chaotic it was in there and just when he finally gave up and was trying to leave, he got his own very public "Bye Felicia" notice in the middle of his "I resign". 
and Drumpf. The public humiliation was too much. He wants to make sure that he restores his vaunted reputation and position in the GOP hierarchy because that childish twitter firing by an imbecile, essentially translated into an alpha dog move against him that he feels he needs to rectify.
As Democrats - you let your two enemies duke it out and let the chips fall where they may.
