The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir

by John Bolton

malpractice pure and simple. And that’s how I saw it almost from the outset. Of course, it wasn’t long before former Deputy National Security Advisor Charlie Kupperman and I received inquiries from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence about whether we would testify. As did the attorneys for other witnesses who testified before the committee. Cooper asked for subpoenas, and one was duly issued for Kupperman. Immediately, the White House informed Kupperman that the President had ordered that he invoke “testimonial immunity,” a more stringent instruction than other witnesses subpoenaed by the intelligence committee had theretofore received, and that he not even appear at the noticed deposition. On Kupperman’s behalf, Cooper promptly filed a lawsuit seeking judicial guidance on which of the two contradictory commands to follow, exactly what I would have done had I been in Kupperman’s place. The various pleadings Cooper filed on Kupperman’s behalf made it plain he was not advocating the substantive merits of either the Executive or the Legislative Branches on what his course of conduct should be, but merely seeking the Judiciary’s guidance.