democrats request to testify. people around the president say they are worried what kind of notes bolton might have kept and when he might divulge them. the sources which include current and former administration officials tell axios that bolton was the most prolific note taker at the top level of the white house and probably has more details than any impeachment inquiry witness so far about the president s dealings with ukraine. we ve also learned bolton has a new book deal with simon & schuster. that deal is worth about $2 million as an advance. the new york times reports indicted rudy giuliani associate lev parnas is claiming he told a representative of the incoming president of ukraine in may that the country s government had to anouns an investigation into the bidens or else vice president mike pence would not attend the swearing in of the new ukrainian leader and the u.s. would freeze aid to their country. the claim which was communicated by the times by an attorney for
sources close to vindman that they don t believe those claims have any merit. of course, vindman is not considered about any information that the president says has privately that may be coming out soon. one of the questions is whether or not he will be one of the officials who testifies publicly. democrats have already signaled they re going to start calling people. he is one they saw as key to make their case, and we re told, of course, the president has tried to imply he has political motivation. one key details, he carries around the 3 by 5 notecards and a me tick las and thorough note taker. fascinating. really amazing he s back at work there today, one can assume.
the only other thing it was about with the shabby financial interests of rudy guiliani now indicted clients. that toxic mix of financial shenanigans and political gain was at the heart of this. guy likes bill taylor, thank god for them, don t pull their punches. when he saw it he did everything to bring it to his superiors, do the right thing, try to stop it within the system and he came and responded to a subpoena and told the truth and glad the public will hear it for themselves. the state department should release his other notes and documents that he kept. this is a copious note taker and the state department refused to release those documents, which is wrong. after hearing ambassador taylor s closed door testimony, you heard it, asked questions as well, how certain were you president trump was actually directing this quid pro quo? 100%. this starts and stops with the
taylor is a very clear presenter of his facts. so as you said, he he he s sort of unimpeachable because he s worked as a political appointee in different administrations, four different administrations in different parties. he was an avid note taker. he was an experienced diplomat. and the stuff s all pretty clear. i mean, we got a lot of notes of things he says. he answers questions pretty succinctly. there s no great complexity to what he is saying. no, this is a diplomat. this is a career public servant but this is also somebody who spent a lot of time in dangerous places, right? he served in afghanistan. he served in ukraine. i mean, this is somebody who doesn t waste a lot of time with flowery language or political asides. he answers questions directly and he has receipts. and i think that s so important. he can talk about specific calls on specific dates. at one point, he describes meeting with john bolton in ukraine when bolton was there visiting. and the very specific war
leadership in the house want to get this done by the end of this year, and if that s the case, you really can t broaden this out too far. so my expectation based again, baesed on the reporting that i have today is that they re going to try and get this wrapped up by the week before christmas. if that s the case, you really can t expand this much wider. i think it s very smart to pick taylor as their opening witness. he is the person even though he has secondhand knowledge, you know, he s relying on conversation with people who had firsthand knowledge, he actually has the most comprehensive view of this whole situation. he was this note taker sort of diligently trying to figure things out, and he s actually to tell the story and to start with him i think is quite smart. he s also someone that s very hard to smear, even though, you know, the president said he s a never trump person. pompeo hand picked him. you know, he s worked under multiple presidents. he s obviously a war hero.