Just as U.S. security officials were claiming that Secret Service misconduct in Colombia was an isolated incident, new allegations involving the president’s protective detail and prostitutes emerged Thursday.
The Secret Service acknowledged Thursday that it’s investigating whether its agents hired strippers and prostitutes in El Salvador in March 2011 when they were supposed to be preparing security for President Obama’s arrival. The scenario is almost identical to charges now facing about 20 Secret Service agents and military personnel who were making security arrangements ahead of Obama’s trip to Colombia this month.
First reported by Seattle television station KIRO-TV, Secret Service employees allegedly received sexual favors from strippers at a club in the Salvadoran capital, San Salvador, before taking prostitutes back to their hotel.
As details emerge, the Secret Service is up against a burgeoning image problem — a dramatic shift for one of Washington’s most exclusive and selective employers.
“I’m really getting tired of this crap,” a former Secret Service agent, granted anonymity to candidly discuss the matter, told The Washington Examiner. “It’s making us all look bad. Right now, it’s all anybody is talking about. When will it end?”
The White House declined to comment on the latest report, referring all questions to the Secret Service.
“Any information brought to our attention that can be assessed as credible will be followed up on in an appropriate manner,” said Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan.
No White House officials have been tied to any wrongdoing, but Obama has been forced to weigh in on the controversy, which has consumed Washington in recent weeks.
The president called the agents involved in the Colombia scandal “knuckleheads” on late-night television, adding that the dispute between Secret Service agents and a prostitute over payment that eventually exposed the entire episode made him “angry.”
Though they originally dismissed the incident as wrongdoing by a few agents, some lawmakers are now questioning whether the recent revelations indicate a cultural problem permeating the Secret Service.
“It sort of defies logic,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., of the notion that such incidents were isolated. “The idea that this is the first and only time, it doesn’t make sense. For something to get this out of control it has to be a … cultural blueprint.”
Added Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., “I keep running into people who tell me that they’ve talked to agents who tell them about misconduct of this kind over the years.”
Eight Secret Service officers were ousted as a result of the fallout from the episode in Colombia, and a dozen military officials could face disciplinary action.
The controversy also has stoked a general public distrust of government, though analysts doubted Obama would pay a political price for the actions of the Secret Service.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a major problem for the president unless it’s revealed that a member of his [White House] advance team was involved,” said Martin Medhurst, a presidential communication expert at Baylor University. “But he’s supposed to be in re-election mode, and he’d certainly rather be talking about other things than this episode.”
