Former National Security Adviser John R. Bolton said Friday that the White House blocked his personal Twitter account for two months after he left his post, a charge that President Trump said he knows nothing about.
“Since resigning as National Security Advisor, the @WhiteHouse refused to return access to my personal Twitter account. Out of fear of what I may say?” Mr. Bolton tweeted. “To those who speculated I went into hiding, I’m sorry to disappoint!”
Mr. Bolton later clarified, “In full disclosure, the @WhiteHouse never returned access to my Twitter account. Thank you to @twitter for standing by their community standards and rightfully returning control of my account.”
Earlier in the day, he tweeted, “Glad to be back on Twitter after more than two months. For the backstory, stay tuned. We have now liberated the Twitter account, previously suppressed unfairly in the aftermath of my resignation as National Security Advisor. More to come.”
On “Fox & Friends” Friday morning, host Brian Kilmeade asked Mr. Trump if the administration “froze” Mr. Bolton’s Twitter account.
“No, of course not,” the president replied. “We disagreed on some things and some methods, but I actually had a good relationship with John.”
Before Friday, Mr. Bolton’s last tweet was on Sept. 10, when he said, “I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ’Let’s talk about it tomorrow.’” Mr. Trump had tweeted 12 minutes earlier that he asked for Mr. Bolton’s resignation.
Mr. Bolton’s return to social media comes a week after he skipped a scheduled appearance to testify in the House impeachment hearings. His lawyer said Mr. Bolton has information about “many relevant meetings and conversations.”
Democrats haven’t issued a subpoena for Mr. Bolton.
Although he hasn’t testified, Mr. Bolton has featured prominently in the hearings. Former National Security Council official Fiona Hill, who reported to Mr. Bolton, testified this week that he warned that the president’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani was a “hand grenade” in the administration’s dealings with Ukraine.
She also testified that Mr. Bolton said he would not participate in “whatever drug deal” that European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney were “cooking up” over Ukraine.
Former top Ukraine diplomat Willliam Taylor testified that Mr. Bolton warned against setting up the July 25th phone call between Mr. Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky that became the central focus of the impeachment probe.
“Ambassador Bolton … did not want to have the call because he thought it was going to be a disaster,” Mr. Taylor told lawmakers last month. “He thought that there could be some talk of investigations, or worse, on the call. Turned out he was right.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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