The real reason John Bolton’s sidekick is going to court about his impeachment testimony

| 11:30 pm EDT October 25, 2019
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During the day on Friday, the news broke that John Bolton was in negotiations to testify to the House impeachment inquiry. Then on Friday night, Bolton’s former Deputy Charles Kupperman asked the courts to rule on whether he should testify on Monday. Most pundits are spinning this into some kind of potential doomsday scenario for the Democrats, because there’s no better way to get ratings than to talk about doomsday scenarios for the Democrats. But that does not at all appear to be what’s going on here.

Kupperman agreed to testify, which means he wants to testify. Then the Trump White House told him that he’s not legally allowed to. So instead of unilaterally doing something that the White House just told him would be a crime, he’s asking the courts to back him up on his decision to testify.

This feels like a non-story. In fact, when you throw in the fact that Kupperman decided to take this to the courts just hours after a federal judge emphatically ruled that the impeachment inquiry is legally valid, there’s very little doubt about which way the Kupperman ruling is going to go. Further, the appeals process won’t matter here. Kupperman can simply get an immediate court ruling saying that he’s legally allowed to testify, and that’ll be that. The White House can’t really file an appeal, considering it’s not the one taking this to court to begin with.

If anything, this development should be looked at within the context of John Bolton’s decision to start negotiating his House impeachment testimony. First of all, that tidbit had to have been leaked to the media by Bolton himself. Second, this legal maneuver by Bolton’s sidekick Kupperman is likely being made in concert with Bolton, because this court ruling will also give Bolton legal clearance to testify.