Jehl also makes a big deal of a member of Bolton’s staff (Fred Fleitz) telling Foley that Bolton wanted Fulton Armstrong fired and Fulton “being jarred” by this. Now, my understanding of the controversy is that there were probably perfectly legitimate reasons to want to fire him. But let’s just say that this was an unjustified vendetta. It wasn’t pursued very energetically by Foley’s account. He said Bolton never mentioned it to him and he recalls Fleitz only mentioning it once. Here is how he describes it:

Q:Do you remember exactly when Fred said, “Oh, and under Secretary Bolton wants this guy fired,” but did he say specifically for what cause or –
Mr. Foley: You see, I don’t think it was that specific. I don’t think it was, “Under Secretary Bolton wants this guy fired.” It was more of a kind of a casual comment that, you know, “John’s having a really difficult time with this guy, and, you know, he thinks this guy ought to be fired because of the way he’s behaving.” It wasn’t — you know, it wasn’t, you know, “John wants to know how do we get this guy fired.” But, like I said, I found it as, kind of, a jarring comment. That is why I reacted to it –