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More Secret Service Agents Gone; Obama Briefed
Three more Secret Service officers resigned Friday in the expanding prostitution scandal that has brought scorching criticism of agents' behavior in Colombia just before President Barack Obama's visit for a summit meeting last week. Agency Director Mark Sullivan came to the White House late Friday to personally brief Obama in the Oval Office.
| About time Champ was 'briefed'... |
| ...and we won't get into what Moo-chelle may have done to him... |
The Secret Service announced the new resignations, bringing to six the number of agency officers who have lost their jobs so far because of events at their hotel in Cartagena.
Also late Friday, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa urged a broader investigation, including checking hotel records for White House advance staff and communications personnel who were in Cartagena for the summit. In a letter to Sullivan and the inspector general at the Homeland Security Department, Grassley asked whether hotel records for the White House staffers had been pulled as part of the investigations.
| Ho-ho, now isn't that an interesting turn? Let's see who else was living the 'high' life in Colombia when they were supposed to be doing advance work... |
Obama's spokesman has assailed Republican criticism
| That's a spinal reflex... |
that has attempted to blame a lack of presidential leadership for the scandal and has said Obama would be angry if allegations published so far proved to be true. Friday's was Obama's first personal briefing by Sullivan on the subject, officials said.
The Secret Service briefed about two-dozen congressional staff members Friday, mainly from the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to one individual who was there but was not authorized to be quoted by name.
The person said investigators have photo ID's and names from a Cartagena, Colombia, hotel registry for all the women who stayed overnight and are in the process of conducting interviews. Investigators have interviewed maids and said no alcohol or drugs were found in the rooms. Those under investigation were offered polygraphs and drug tests. It is unclear whether anyone accepted, the person said.
| I wouldn't be saying a word except through my lawyer if I was any of them... |
Grassley, in his letter to Sullivan and the Homeland Security inspector general, Charles Edwards, asked about checks on hotels in Cartagena for White House advance staff members and the White House Communications Agency, which includes military personnel: "Have records for overnight guests for those entities been pulled as part of the investigation? ... If not, why not?"
Additionally, Grassley, top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked whether rooms were shared by Secret Service, the communications agency and the presidential advance staff.
| Just what Champ would need, a wider scandal that reaches right into the White House... |
Posted by: Steve White 2012-04-23 |
