Graeme Wood: “Silence up to now has bought Bolton the Litigator something very valuable. He has now listened as others present ‘in the room’—including his deputies, such as Fiona Hill—have recorded their versions of events. He has heard Republicans, including Trump, lay out an impeachment defense—not only a version of events, but also a theory of innocence. By speaking last, he can present testimony precisely calculated to hurt those he most wants to embarrass.”

“Even just today, in response to the initial leaks from Bolton’s book, Trump tweeted a suspiciously grammatical series of statements demeaning Bolton and denying that Bolton was told to delay aid to Ukraine. Bolton is strategic, and it would be unlike him to make a bold claim without a plan to counter Trump’s denial. More likely, he will dole out the details and evidence methodically, thwarting his critics like steers in a cutting horse competition.”

Windsor Mann: “No one scares President Trump as much as people who used to work for him. They know the truth about him, and some of them tell it. When they do, Trump denies it and smears them.”

“It’s amazing how many people have turned on Trump in just his first term. He is a man who prizes loyalty above all else, and yet one toady after another has betrayed him.”

“The National Security Council denied Monday that any White House personnel outside of its purview had seen the manuscript of former national security adviser John Bolton’s book that was submitted to the White House for review,” Axios reports.

“Given that White House counsel Pat Cipollone is not part of the NSC, this statement appears to double as an on-the-record denial that anyone on President Trump’s impeachment defense team reviewed Bolton’s manuscript.”

“There was no firsthand witnesses that actually said the president did anything wrong,”

— Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), on Fox News, just a few hours before a leaked draft manuscript of John Bolton’s forthcoming book contradicted his statement.

Politico: “President Trump is already itching to broadcast the series finale of his impeachment. In recent days, he and top White House aides have been considering how he should celebrate his presumed acquittal by the Republican-controlled Senate and whether he should deliver a rare Oval Office address to mark the occasion.”

President Trump slammed House manager Adam Schiff as a “CORRUPT POLITICIAN” who is “now exposed for illegally making up my phone call, & more!”

He added that “Shifty” has “not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!”

A full, 80-minute video of President Trump calling for the ambassador of Ukraine to be fired was released by PBS News.

New York Times: “The conversation, captured on a recording, contradicted Mr. Trump’s repeated statements that he does not know the two men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who went on to work with the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to carry out a pressure campaign on Ukraine.”

In the footage, Trump also spoke at length about beating Hilary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race, then said he would have had an even easier time beating President Barack Obama in 2012.

Associated Press: “Donald Trump has always been a man of absolutes. Something is the best or the worst, a person is a winner or a total loser, an event has never happened before, even when it has.”

“Absolutism was the unwritten credo of his career in business and is the guiding light of his presidency as he makes an assertion rarely heard from an American president: that he can do as he pleases.”

“Now that approach faces its ultimate test as a foundation of Trump’s defense in his impeachment trial, namely that he is cloaked with unrestrained authority. How that question is answered, both by the Senate in the impeachment trial and by voters in November, will define how Americans view the concept of presidential power.”

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds President Trump’s approval rating has climbed to match the highest of his presidency, 44% to 51%.

Key takeaway: A 56% majority approves of Trump’s handling of the economy, up 10 percentage points from September and his strongest rating on his marquee issue since entering office.

“The findings suggest the country’s strong economy and heightened support from men and independents are helping Trump weather an impeachment trial in which Democrats have argued Trump abused his presidential powers and obstructed a congressional investigation of his actions.”

Yesterday was Donald and Melania Trump’s 15th wedding anniversary, but Kate Bennett noticed that neither has ever said anything about their anniversary publicly since Trump took office.

“I’m not interested in wading in the procedural weeds here.”

— Trump impeachment lawyer Robert Ray, when asked by CNN why White House counsel Pat Cipollone falsely claimed that House Republicans were not allowed in the SCIF.

Former Reagan solicitor general Charles Fried tells Newsweek that President Trump is “perhaps the most dishonest person to sit in the Oval Office” and is “capable of doing serious damage.”

But he saves his harshest criticism for Attorney General William Barr:

Barr knows all of this. And he’s supposed to be a very moral man, and so on and so forth. But to be the apologist for perhaps the most dishonest person to ever sit in the White House? I mean, dishonest in the sense that he lies the way other people breathe. You would think that the project of protecting presidential powers would provide a worthier subject than that, particularly for a supposedly honorable man. But the fact is, all the honorable people in the Cabinet have left. And what you have left is people who are willing to say anything, as Barr is. And you saw the way he treated the Mueller Report, which he misrepresented, because that is what his boss would have wanted.

You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. His reputation is gone.

CNN: “The Justice Department did not hand over the FBI’s summary of Jared Kushner’s interviews with special counsel Robert Mueller last week — despite a judge’s order to do so — because ‘a member of the intelligence community’ needs to ensure the material has been properly redacted.”