The White House dismissed as old news a report Wednesday night that it knew about but failed to thoroughly investigate evidence that a prostitute may have been an overnight guest in the hotel room of a member of President Barack Obama's advance team in Colombia in 2012. The Washington Post cited numerous government documents that it said showed that senior White House aides were given extensive details of a Secret Service investigation into the incident, which it never publicy acknowledged.
The Secret Service investigation led that agency to fire 10 of its agents. According to The Post, the Secret Service shared the same evidence it used to support the agents' terminations with the White House at least twice, but Kathryn Ruemmler, then the White House counsel, concluded that the political aide did nothing wrong. It said the lead investigator into the allegations for the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general's office, meanwhile, told Senate staffers that he felt pressured by his superiors to withhold evidence in the heat of an election year.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday night on Twitter that the allegation was reported, investigated and dismissed at the time:
bberitaa.blogspot.com report Earnest links to says the Homeland Security inspector general uncovered a single hotel record that suggested the aide 'might have been involved.' The Post report Wednesday night, however, indicates the White House was in possession of far more material, including hotel records and direct interviews of all of the advance-team members on the April 2012 trip and with multiple executives at the Cartagena hotel, as well as hotel logs showing that a woman was registered to the aide's room overnight - complete with a photocopy of her ID card.
IN-DEPTH
- M. Alex Johnson
First published October 8 2014, 8:48 PM
Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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