John Bolton has probably planned it this way. After all, when he left Donald Trump's employ, he declared that he would eventually have his say. Frank Bruni writes:
Bolton is the impeachment star of the week, whether he winds up testifying or not, and I can’t shake the feeling that he plotted all of this out: keeping his head down during the hearings in the House; letting it be known only afterward that he’d be willing to testify in the Senate; the revelation this week — simultaneous with assertions by Trump’s defense team that there were no firsthand witnesses to the president’s wrongdoing — that his book indeed addresses Ukraine and fully backs up the charges in the articles of impeachment.
No one should be surprised that things are turning out this way:
Bolton has always been vain, brilliant and ruthless, and this is the timeline that a vain, brilliant and ruthless operator would cinch. I’m not personally acquainted with the sound of his laughter, but I’m certain I hear it.
Donald Trump is ruthless. But he's not brilliant. And Bolton is going to have his revenge.
Image: The New Republic
