On and on . . . and on

What if I worked at a bank and was given a pile of money to deposit into the bank vault, but before I did that I turned to a co-worker and said, "You know, I'd love to keep this money." But I didn't. In the end I deposited all of it into the vault. Have I committed a crime? No. The money went into the bank vault where it was supposed to go.

Well, was it a crime to tell my co-worker that I wanted to keep it? No. I did nothing wrong except share my thoughts out loud.

Until we pass a law that "thinking" of doing something even though you never actually do it becomes a crime, then I did nothing wrong.

Of course this little story is meant to be analogous of President Trump saying to former national security adviser John Bolton that he didn't wish to release military aid to Ukraine until that country helped with investigations into corruption involving Joe Biden and his son.

Regardless of what he said to Bolton, in the end President Trump did release the aid to Ukraine without getting anything in return, promises or otherwise. But what President Trump is alleged to have said to Bolton (if he said it at all) isn't even as bad as my analogy.

In my simple analogy if I DID keep the money it would very certainly have been a crime. On the other hand if President Trump actually had military aid withheld from the Ukraine until they promised to work with us on uncovering a corrupt event involving a former vice president, it still wouldn't have been a crime.

Exposing government corruption isn't wrong; it is what SHOULD be done, what we'd hope our leaders would do. In any case, both President Trump and the Ukrainian president say that no such tit for tat ever transpired.

All this comes out of a story earlier this week by the New York Times. The writer of the Times story says she "was told" from people who claim to have seen it, that Bolton wrote in his upcoming book that President Trump said to him that he would like to withhold the aid until the Ukrainian government helps him with the investigation. Hearsay. Nobody in the media, no congressmen, no senators, no White House administration officials have read what Bolton purports to have written.

On Monday Harvard Constitutional law professor Alan M. Dershowitz in his address to the Senate chamber, mentioned the so-called Bolton book "bombshell," telling senators that "nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense."

And if Bolton did write that in his book, it's only his word against others. Could it be that he made it up to increase sales of his book? Remember, John Bolton was fired by President Trump and it's a pretty good bet that he wasn't too happy about it. Disgruntled former government employees have a tendency to write nasty things about their boss (remember Jim Comey?).

As I write this, Bolton has not spoken out or testified in the impeachment trial so no one really knows what he wrote in his book. The point is, it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters to the Democrats is to keep the dirt flying as long as they can. They want to drag this thing out, for weeks, if possible. All the better in their attempt to make President Trump look bad and weaken him in the 2020 presidential election.

Bolton and his book is much ado about nothing. Senate Republicans shouldn't fall for the same dirty tricks that the Democrats pulled during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings in 2018, when day after day they leaked out one "bombshell" after another. All lies. It's the same playbook. If this Bolton thing falls flat trust me, something else will suddenly pop up.

Time to end this garbage. Honest Americans don't deserve it.

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JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. He's been a JWR contributor since 1999.