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State Dept. says Bolton truthful to Senate panel

Posted on: Thursday, 28 July 2005, 15:24 CDT

By Vicki Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department on Thursday said U.N. ambassador nominee John Bolton told Congress the truth when he said he did not testify in the investigation of the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Bolton's answer in March to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was "truthful then and it remains the case now."

A spokesman for Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the committee's top Democrat, said McCormack's statements did not resolve all of the questions. He said Biden was waiting for a written response from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Bolton's nomination has snagged on accusations he tried to manipulate intelligence and intimidated intelligence analysts to support his hawkish views in his position as the top U.S. diplomat for arms control.

Questioned by reporters, McCormack recited the committee's questionnaire that asks whether a nominee "has been interviewed or asked to supply any information in connection with any administrative (including an inspector general), congressional or grand jury investigation, within the past five years, except routine congressional testimony."

"Mr. Bolton, in his response on the written paperwork, was to say "No." And that answer is truthful then and it remains the case now," McCormack said.

Democrats were responding to a report MSNBC aired last week that Bolton testified before the federal grand jury investigating who leaked the identity of Plame.

The leak came after Plame's husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, accused the White House of twisting intelligence to justify the Iraq war.

Lacking votes in the Senate to confirm Bolton, the White House has left open the possibility that it might appoint him while Congress takes its monthlong summer recess which starts this weekend. A recess appointment would be temporary, expiring in January 2007 when the new Congress convenes.

Democrats contend that any questions over whether Bolton misled the Senate committee should be resolved before such an appointment.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, confirmed that the Senate would not act on Bolton's nomination in the remaining hours before the recess, "and therefore we will address it after the recess."

In procedural votes in May and June, Democrats denied Republicans the 60 votes needed from the 100-member Senate to close debate on Bolton and move to a confirmation vote, which would require a simple majority.

(Additional reporting by Saul Hudson and Susan Cornwell)

Source: REUTERS

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