AudioThe confirmation battle took place during the first years of the Iraq war, a conflict Mr. Bolton supported and defends to this day. “We are confident that Saddam Hussein has hidden weapons of mass destruction and production facilities in Iraq,” Mr. Bolton said in 2002. Amid the emotions that the war by then engendered, consideration of Mr. Bolton’s nomination turned into a five-month standoff as Senate Democrats scrutinized what they saw as Mr. Bolton’s efforts to subvert the government’s own findings in pursuit of his and his allies’ beliefs. He shared that penchant with Mr. Cheney, who repeatedly confronted intelligence professionals and agencies whose analytical assessments did not support his conclusions in favor of the Iraq war. “There was some validity” to accusations of Mr. Bolton’s behavior during the investigation, Mr. Diller wrote in an email, but it “found no clear ethical transgressions.

Source: New York Times March 29, 2018 09:00 UTC