John Bolton has said unequivocably that he did nothing to try and discipline anyone over their intelligence findings and views.
This just out in the New York Times:
Mr. Bolton, sharply questioned and confronted with the texts of several e-mails, acknowledged that when a State Department analyst, Christian Westermann, had challenged parts of a speech that Mr. Bolton wanted to deliver asserting that Cuba had a secret biological weapons program, he complained to the man’s superior.
But, he added, “I in no sense sought to have any discipline imposed on Mr. Westermann.”
If Mr. Bolton had sought the reassignment of Mr. Westermann and another intelligence analyst — both of whom ultimately were shown to be correct in their judgments — “then I don’t think you have a right to serve in a high post,” said Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut.
One former senior official in the State Department during John Bolton’s tenure there has told me: “Christian Westermann did absolutely nothing wrong. He was a victim in all of this.”
We are going to hear from Westermann, Carl Ford, Thomas Fingar and others tomorrow — if the hearings are public and not closed for secrecy reasons — but we will hear much more about this.
If the case can be made that John Bolton is lying or obfuscating about this case which is drawing so much attention, then this fits quite well into John Bolton’s record of Congressional defiance — even at his confirmation hearings.
Stay tuned.
— Steve Clemons
