The Secret Service is once again shaken up by controversies amidst security issues. And a new report from The Washington Post suggested that a White House aide was involved in the 2012 prostitution controversy in Cartagena, Colombia. The scandal, which prompted nearly two dozen agents and members to be dismissed and punished, tainted the once esteemed image of the agency.
According to CNN, over a dozen Secret Service agents and military personnel working in advance of an Obama visit to Cartagena got drunk and brought prostitutes back to their hotel rooms at the time. The prostitution scandal swayed the agency and cost over ten employees their jobs, in addition to overshadowing the president's trip to the Summit of the Americas.
Fox News reported that the lead investigator into the Secret Service prostitution scandal told Senate staffers that he was instructed to withhold the release of the report until after the electoral referendum in 2012.
According to the report, lead investigator David Nieland said that he was directed by his superiors in the Department of Homeland Security inspector general's office to delay and change certain details in the report of the prostitution scandal probe that involved Secret Service agents and members. It was for the reason that it posed a potential embarrassment to the administration.
Contrary to earlier denials that any White House member was involved, The Washington Post reported that senior White House aides were given information that a prostitute has stayed in the hotel room of a member of the administration's advance team.
At the time of the probe, the Department of Homeland Security's acting inspector Charles Edwards told the Senate staffers that any report alterations were part of the editing process. His statement was also supported by White House spokesperson Eric Schultz.
"As the bipartisan Senate investigation found ... changes made to the IG Report were 'part of the ordinary process of editing the report' and found that allegations that changes were made because they were embarrassing could not be substantiated," Schultz stated through a late Wednesday statement.
The administration advance team has been identified as then a 25-year old Ivy League student Jonathan Dach, an intern who assisted to coordinate drivers for the White House drivers. The Post reported that Dach has constantly denied the allegations involving him on the prostitution scandal in the Secret Service.
The Blaze reported that the argument over whether to pursue White House members for possible involvement in the 2012 Secret Service prostitution scandal had become intensely heated. It added that staffers who appeared to approve looking into the administration were put on administrative leave as a form of discipline. Meanwhile, the White House unwaveringly denied the allegations on Wednesday.
According to several reports on the Secret Service scandal, multiple agents were disappointed about the "double standard" from the White House. They expressed that the administration was not investigating one of their own, while placing the full responsibility on the agency.
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