Former national security adviser John Bolton accused the White House on Friday of holding his personal Twitter account hostage for more than six weeks and suggested on his restored account that the Trump administration might be concerned about information he could share with his followers.
Bolton returned to the platform with cryptic tweets promising “the backstory” on his social media absence.
He said nothing about whether he might testify or otherwise provide information for the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
“We have now liberated the Twitter account, previously suppressed unfairly in the aftermath of my resignation as National Security Advisor,” he wrote.
“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!”
A senior administration official denied Bolton’s claim but did not elaborate, the Washington Post reported.
“The White House did not block Mr. Bolton from accessing his personal Twitter account, and wouldn’t have the technical means to do so,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a former employee.
Trump denied any such action during a morning call-in interview on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” after host Brian Kilmeade asked him, “Did you guys freeze his account?”
“No, of course not,” Trump responded. “Of course not. No, I actually had a good relationship with John. We disagreed on some things and some methods, but I actually had a good relationship. No, I didn’t do that. No, I didn’t even know that.”
At the time of the interview, Bolton had announced his return to Twitter in a separate tweet but had not publicly accused the White House of freezing his account.
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