Investigations into alleged US Secret Service prostitution scandal take larger scope

WASHINGTON – Congressional committees are widening their investigations into an alleged U.S. Secret Service scandal involving prostitutes in Colombia ahead of a recent trip there by President Barack Obama, and one representative said Monday he expects to see several more agents being forced to leave their jobs.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee wants to determine whether what transpired was an exception or “a pattern of misconduct that has gone on elsewhere by Secret Service agents,” said committee Chairman Sen. Joe Lieberman. The Secret Service is charged with protecting the president and others near the presidency.

Lieberman, in an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” said his panel would send the Secret Service detailed questions about the conduct of agents not only “on assignment, but off duty.”

He asked, “What’s the Secret Service going to do to make sure it never happens again?”

And on Monday, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King said “countless agents” are interviewing hotel maids and other workers, women involved in the incident and other Secret Service employees in Columbia.

“I think we expect in the next day or so to see several more agents being forced to leave,” King told NBC’s “Today Show.”

So far, the scandal involves 12 Secret Service employees and 11 members of the military. Six of the Secret Service members have lost their jobs.

The Secret Service has confirmed that one of the 12 implicated in the scandal had stayed at a different hotel in Cartagena than the others. He stayed at the Hilton, where Obama later would stay. The others stayed at the Hotel Caribe.

The agent is being investigated for improprieties in a separate incident that may have happened on April 9, days before the president arrived for a summit with other Western Hemisphere leaders that ended April 15 — and while the hotel was still open to the general public.

“Now, we don’t know at this point what that 12th agent is being charged with and why he’s been put on administrative leave. But now you’re into the hotel where the president of the United States was going to stay. And it just gets more troubling,” said Lieberman, who also appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the allegations are disturbing, but that the misdeeds of a few individuals should not tarnish the overall work and reputation of the protective service.

Axelrod called the conduct in Colombia “really disappointing.”

Sen. Susan Collins, the senior Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney both said on ABC’s “This Week” that more female Secret Service agents might help guard against such incidents from happening again. Maloney said that only 11 per cent of Secret Service agents are women.

Collins said that the Secret Service told her there is no evidence that any of the alleged prostitutes were underage women.

Still, she asked, “What are Secret Service personnel doing bringing unknown foreign nationals to their rooms, regardless of their age?”

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