State Department officials exerted “undue influence and favoritism” in short-circuiting an internal investigation of multiple sexual harassment charges against a regional security officer with a long history of such allegations.
Investigators from the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security found “overwhelming evidence of the [regional security officer’s] culpability,” according to a State Department IG report.
Those allegations were lodged against an unidentified regional security officer in 2011, but “the RSO already had a long history of similar misconduct allegations dating back 10 years at seven other posts where he worked,” the IG said.
The RSO had been suspended for five days following a 2006 internal investigation.
The IG said there was “undue delay within the department in adequately addressing” the internal investigation of the 2011 investigations, and “the alleged incidents of similar misconduct prior to 2011 were not timely reported to appropriate department officials.”
Compounding those shortcomings, the IG said that despite “the serious nature of the alleged misconduct, the department never attempted to remove the RSO from department work environments where the RSO could potentially harm other employees.”
The IG said investigators encountered significant opposition from “senior department officials and managers” as the case progressed in 2011.
“OIG found that the managers in question had personal relationships with the RSO. For instance, the agents were directed to interview another [department] manager who was a friend of the RSO, and who was the official responsible for selecting the agents’ work assignments,” the IG said.
“During the interview, the manager acted in a manner the agents believed was meant to intimidate them. OIG also found that department [managers] had described the agents’ investigation as a ‘witch hunt,’ unfairly focused on the RSO,” the IG said.
There was no evidence of illegal retaliation against the investigators by senior officials or managers.
Termination proceedings against the RSO began in November 2013 and were completed in June 2014, three years after the opening of the 2011 investigation, the IG said.
The information about the RSO’s case was contained in the same IG report first reported Friday by the Washington Examiner.
The Friday story focused on State Department officials improperly terminating an internal investigation of allegations that a U.S. ambassador had solicited a prostitute in a public park.
Multiple witnesses were never interviewed and the investigation was halted after officials reclassified it as a “management issue.”
The ambassador denied the charges and was allowed to continue on the job. None of the 13 previous situations involving allegations of improper contact between a State Department employee and prostitutes were treated as “management issues,” the IG said.
Time Magazine reported Friday that the ambassador was Howard Gutman, who represents the U.S. in Belgium.
He was an early supporter of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in March 2007, according to the FEC.
He also contributed to Obama’s chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton, in November 2008.
Go here to read the full IG report.
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of the Washington Examiner.
