Just talked to Charlie Black (who is, of course, a Republican). His firm of Black, Manafort, Stone, and Kelly (the name back then) was the sub-contractor involved. He hired Sarah Townsel to work on the IBTCI project in question and she went to Kyrgyzstan. He says she “hadn’t been there very long when she started complaining about our client,” IBTCI. Over various money issues. “There were a whole stream of complaints, some very minor.” Then, “the whole thing unraveled.” Black says that “during that time she never uttered John Bolton’s name to me. If that had happened [the hotel incident], I couldn’t imagine that she wouldn’t have said something given the minor nature of her complaints that she did share.” Black notes he is also friends with Bolton who surely would have told him had he had a run-in with one of his employees. Black sums up: “It doesn’t make sense.”