Flashback: Bolton Helped Bush Steal 2000 Election

Many of president's appointees fought Gore's bid to take Florida, White House

Carol Rosenberg - Jul. 14, 2002

John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, caused a stir in May by accusing the Cuban government of transferring bioweapons technology to rogue nations. Nineteen months ago, he caused a different stir -- bursting into a Tallahassee library on behalf of the Bush-Cheney campaign to stop a recount of Miami-Dade County ballots.

[...] Bolton, the U.S. diplomat now responsible for arms control issues, said no payoff was promised for his decision to join the post-election fray. He had worked for the first Bush administration and, finding himself in South Korea on election night, contacted former Secretary of State James Baker in Texas to see how he might lend a hand. The reply: Go to Florida.

[...] It was his role, on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2000, to burst into a library where workers were recounting Miami-Dade ballots andrelay news of the U.S. Supreme Court's stay in the on-again, off-again presidential recount.

"I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the count," he was quoted as saying in news reports at the time.

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Photo of Bolton in Florida during Recount >>