The Honorable Man (no quotation marks) who did that spoke of that very thing in the press conference.
He said that in 1996 John Kerry was being slandered with the same kind of accusations with which Kerry had slandered all Vietnam vets. He said he knew it to be untrue, so he stepped forwarded and said so. He said he was defending the truth then just as he's defending the truth now.
Franky, this fellow sounds like a publicity hound. And he will ride whatever horse necessary to garner publicity.