Bolton claims he has ‘liberated’ his Twitter account after it was suppressed following his resignation

Former national security adviser John Bolton claimed Friday that he “liberated” his Twitter account after it was “suppressed unfairly” following his September departure from the White House.

“We have now liberated the Twitter account, previously suppressed unfairly in the aftermath of my resignation as National Security Advisor. More to come,” Bolton tweeted.

He later added that the White House “refused to return access to my personal Twitter account” and that he was “sorry to disappoint” any who speculated he would not eventually speak out. 

We have now liberated the Twitter account, previously suppressed unfairly in the aftermath of my resignation as National Security Advisor. More to come…..

— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) November 22, 2019

Re: speaking up — 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? To those who speculated I went into hiding, I’m sorry to disappoint!

— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) November 22, 2019

His comments follow a previous post saying he was “glad to be back” on Twitter after a two-month pause and that followers should “stay tuned” for “the backstory.”

Questioned Friday after Bolton’s initial post, President Trump denied freezing the account in an interview with “Fox & Friends” and added that he has a “good relationship” with Bolton. 

“No of course not,” he said after the question was posed. “I actually had a good relationship with John. We disagreed on some things and some methods, but I actually had a good relationship.”

A senior administration official also told The Hill in an email that the White House did not prevent Bolton from accessing his personal account and wouldn’t have the technical means to do that. 

Prior to the Friday morning tweets, Bolton’s last post was Sept. 10. At that time, he had said he resigned from the White House after Trump said he had fired him. 

Bolton has been mentioned several times during the House’s impeachment investigation into Trump over his dealings with Ukraine. 

Former Russian affairs adviser Fiona Hill testified that Bolton called Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani a “hand grenade that was going to blow everyone up.”

She said in previous testimony that Bolton had told her to tell National Security Counsel legal adviser John Eisenberg that he is “not part of whatever drug deal” other Trump administration officials were “cooking up.”

Bolton has declined a request to testify in the probe, citing the White House’s assertion of executive privilege. House Democrats did not subpoena him, and one Intelligence Committee official said in a statement that Bolton “would take us to court if we subpoenaed him.”

Bolton’s lawyer recently said in a letter to the House’s general counsel that he wanted it to be decided in court whether the subpoena or executive privilege would take precedence.  

The lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, also wrote that Bolton was involved in “many relevant meetings and conversations that have not yet been discussed” in the probe.

Updated: 4:57 p.m.