Revelations reported in former national security adviser John Bolton's upcoming book don't change anything about what's happening in the Senate's impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Rep. Doug Collins, a member of the president's House defense team, said Monday.
"The issue is, how do we go about this process," the Georgia Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "Taking the facts the Democratic managers presented in the Senate, do they make their case or did they not make it?"
He added that he finds it "amazing" there are "selective leaks at this point in time," referring to the The New York Times article about Bolton's manuscript and claims that Trump told his former aide that aid would be withheld from Ukraine unless it investigated Joe and Hunter Biden and other Democrats.
"Remember, just right before the articles were voted in the House, we had the Democratic colleagues in the house actually talk about the Lev Parnas issue," said Collins. "It's always coming up at a moment in which the case of the week is. But here's the bottom line: Nothing in what we've seen so far, and it simply leaked parts of the transcript, has changed the base and facts of what we're talking about."
Further, he said, there were no conditions for the aid, which was released even though Ukraine "did nothing."
"The discussions internally on how that went about doesn't change anything except it goes back to show that if he is such a relevant witness now, why was he not such a relevant witness for the House?" said Collins. "Why did Adam Schiff have to plead to the Senate to call people now? Because he's scared of them going to court ... Adam Schiff could have subpoenaed John Bolton, went through this process in the House. He chose not to. Let's remember that this is because the calendar and clock were against them."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.