Smoking Gun ?

Douglas Jehl reports on leaked transcripts of interviews with the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

"Foley [former head of the CIA weapons proliferation center] said he remembered 'being Jarred' when Frederick Fleitz, Bolton's top aid, told him in a phone conversation that 'John thinks this guy ought to be fired.'"


Steve Clemons wrote some time ago "I want to remind readers that John Bolton emphatically denied harrassing or abusing staff and that he denied clashing with individuals over intelligence estimates. Bolton said he never tried to have anyone fired. John Bolton lied."

Bolton did not try to get Foley fired, so he doesn't have an obvious ax to grind. Bolton still has full confidence in Fleitz, which would be odd if Fleitz dreamed up the whole thing. Bolton was under oath. Sounds like a felony to me.

To me this is relevant, since previously witnesses have only quoted Bolton saying he had lost confidence in this or that guy and wanted him transferred out of his only area of expertise. If he were a defendant, Bolton could get off by claiming that his testimony that he didn't ask for people to be fired was technically true, even though it was obviously dishonest.