Are the Walls Really Closing in on Trump?

Hunter DeRensis

Politics, Americas

It appears that Trump’s attempt to influence Ukraine was not a personal initiative but a controversial and widely known plan among his confidants.

Are the walls closing on Donald Trump? The appearance of numerous witnesses, ranging from former White House aide and Russia hand Fiona Hill to State Department official George Kent, has convinced multiple Democrats that Trump isn’t simply on the defensive. Instead, he may be headed for the exit. For example, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) declared, “The walls are closing in. The details we are learning about the shadow foreign policy operation Trump has been running to benefit himself personally are stunning. Why have a democracy, if we allow this to happen without consequence?”

Yesterday, Hill became the first White House official to testify before the House, ignoring an edict from the Trump administration that no one from the executive branch cooperate with Congress. Like previous testimonies, hers was behind-closed-doors, but it revealed how far back, and how expansive, the mission to investigate Hunter Biden was from the outset.

Attorney General William Barr has been conducting his own investigation (spearheaded by prosecutor John Durham) into the origins of the FBI surveillance of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. This seems to be parallel, but separate, from the talks that President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was having with the Ukrainian government.

Then, two weeks ago, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo divulged that was in fact on the line during Trump’s call. And Giuliani himself revealed to the media that he was working in tandem with U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker (who resigned as soon as the Trump-Ukraine story broke) and current U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.

Now Hill, who served in her position from April 2017 until her departure in August, testified that a July 10 argument took place between Sondland and then-National Security Advisor John Bolton, who was fired in early September. According to Hill, Bolton told her to contact the National Security Council legal team and inform them about the conspiratorial actions of Giuliani, Sondland, and acting-White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

“I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up,” Hill recalled Bolton telling her.

Remembering an earlier conversation, Bolton apparently told her that “Giuliani’s a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up.”