John Bolton Once Went On a 'War Path' Against a Woman Seeking Maternity Leave

[DonViejo]

BY MARIE SOLIS ON 4/3/18 AT 6:40 AM

During his time as the chief of the Department of Justice's Civil Division, National Security Adviser John Bolton once retaliated against a woman seeking unpaid leave for health complications resulting from pregnancy.

In 1988, Joan Bernott — now Joan Maginnis — a senior attorney in Bolton's division, had just given birth to her third daughter when she asked for 17 weeks of unpaid leave to recover from ongoing health problems. (The Washington Post reported at the time that Maginnis had managed to write a Supreme Court brief the same day as her daughter's birth.) Under the DOJ's policy, employees could request up to a year of unpaid leave after giving birth, so long as their supervisor approved it.

Bolton not only denied Maginnis's request, but accused her of fraud, asking Maginnis to provide him with "pages of personal health information about breastfeeding and medications" and ordering that she return to work," according to findings from progressive PAC American Bridge. He later said the DOJ's maternity leave policy was "https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/153915NCJRS.pdf&ust=1522780980000000&usg=AFQjCNGJbwJggellVWr55udaqPlBBiSY8w&hl=en&source=gmail" target="_blank">impossible and potentially unfair."

Thus began two months of negotiations between Maginnis and Bolton, during which time Bolton tried to terminate Maginnis. He didn't succeed: Maginnis eventually turned over her medical records and, with the help of an attorney, got the DOJ to approve her request for unpaid leave.

When she returned to work, however, Maginnis found she'd been reassigned to another division in the department.

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http://www.newsweek.com/john-bolton-once-went-war-path-against-woman-seeking-pregnancy-leave-868650

[zipplewrath]

1. You'd think MeToo would kill this

You'd think in this MeToo age, this would be the death knell for Bolton. At the very least you'd think the democrats could make a fair amount of hay out of this leading up to the midterms.

[dchill]

2. ...making him all that more appealing to Trump.

[Zambero]

3. Conservative "pro-family" in action

Taking deliberate steps to make this woman's life unbearable enough that she will quit, and try to fire her if she doesn't.

[Cracklin Charlie]

4. The depths of their deplorabilty knows no bounds.

That poor woman. I hope her health has improved.

[smirkymonkey]

5. Can this party be any more hateful and deplorable, especially with the

way they treat women? I can't for the life of me understand why any woman would vote republican.

[Ohiogal]

6. You and me both, smirkymonkey

My own sister voted for Trump because she thought he'd lower her taxes. Plus she's pretty much a racist. Unfortunately, many women put racist beliefs ahead of women's rights beliefs. She is single and doesn't have kids, and she complains to me from time to time about increasing property taxes for school levies, "special treatment" for women who want paid leave from work, other people's spoiled brats, "welfare queens" who demand free everything, etc. etc. Oh yeah and she claims to be "pro life". She told me she absolutely hates the phrase "for the common good." I just never know how to answer most of it so I'm afraid I let it go, since she is my only sister. She already knows how I feel and what side I'm on.

[smirkymonkey]

7. Ugh! I hear you. I have a republican sister as well. She and her husband watch nothing but

Fox news and are total Trump lovers. She isn't too rabid, but he has totally drunk the kool-aid. We can't talk politics at all. It's like walking into a field of land mines. They are both well educated and are generally nice people, but they just can't stand "bleeding-heart liberals" and everything we represent. It's really hard to deal with, so I know what you are going through.

[Ilsa]

8. It's time to remind her that those kids in

public education currently will be her doctors, nurses, financial advisers, etc, when she is too old to take care of herself.

[Hortensis]

10. My half-sister's thoughts and mine are on non-intersecting lines

also, Ohiogal. Politics are only one aspect for us, and I'm hoping you guys do have a happy common ground.

With age, mine seems to have settled into whatever names the media talk about in that "accepted candidates for anti-establishment types" range between farther left and libertarian right. She favored Sanders strongly, was interested in Johnson but not in voting for someone who couldn't win. So she almost certainly voted Trump, even though as a clinical psychologist she's well aware of his mental issues. I never asked, but she'd spouted some of the usual alt-left/right lies about corrupt Hillary at me and always complains about Democrats. The usual.

I seldom run into messages on DU from people leaning that way without imagining what she'd join in with, and like this one, wondering about her take on Bolton. But we only still have a relationship by interacting occasionally from a distance and my mostly avoiding the subject.

[Buns_of_Fire]

9. Petty, autocratic, vindictive: Rump's kinda guy. nt

[Initech]

11. What is wrong with these people?