State Department rejects Democrat call for Bolton documents News
State Department rejects Democrat call for Bolton documents

[JURIST] The US Department of State [official website] said Monday that it will not release internal documents requested by Senate Democrats serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee [official website], set to vote Thursday on the nomination of John Bolton [official profile] as US ambassador to the UN [US mission to the UN official website]. The Department insisted that the documents requested, containing information about Bolton's current job as Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, are not necessary, since all required information has already been provided to the committee. The committee has received more than 500 documents from the State Department and US Agency for International Development [official website] as well as 125 documents from various intelligence agencies. The top-ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Joseph Biden [official website], countered that Republicans received all the documents they requested, while the Democrats did not. During April confirmation hearings, critics alleged that Bolton was a "serial abuser" of officials below him and could not work with those who questioned his motives. In an interview [text] Monday, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice [White House profile] stated, "I see nothing that suggests that John was anything but an interested consumer of intelligence and asked difficult questions." The chair of the Foreign Relation Committees, GOP Senator Richard Lugar [official website], has predicted that the Bolton nomination will pass the committee on a party line vote, 10-8, but the vote has been delayed [JURIST report] several times so far. AP has more.