White House Asked To Come Clean On "Colombia Sex Scandal" Involving Its Staffer: Investigator Admits Being Pressured To Stall Report
Fresh disclosure on the Colombia sex scandal that rocked the White House Secret Staffers a couple of years ago have become the new handle for Republicans to target the White House. Raising the issue, Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz on Thursday urged the White House to "come clean" on the new revelations that it tried to cover up the involvement of a White House staffer and stall the probe report, according to Fox News.
The new trigger came from the deposition by the lead investigator, David Nieland, who probed the drunken sex scandal. He told the Senate committee that he was pressured by his superiors to withhold evidence and stall the report until the presidential election was over, according to The Washington Post.
Hooker In Hotel Room
The alleged scandal happened in hotel Cartagena, Colombia ahead of President Obama's trip to the city to attend the "Summit of the Americas" in April 2012. The controversial White House team member was Jonathan Dach, who was a 25-year-old Yale student and was a volunteer on the advance team. He is the son of Leslie Dach, a Democratic donor and also associated with the Obama administration in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dach repeatedly denied the charge that he brought a sex worker to his hotel room. In any case, prostitution is not a crime in parts of Colombia that includes Cartagena also. When the matter came out, two dozen Secret Service agents were subjected to disciplinary action including dismissal from the service.
The matter was brought up lately after a report by the Washington Post. The Law maker Chaffetz questioned the "privileged" treatment offered to Dach and referred to the damage it caused as an "offensive to the morale" of the Secret Service. Chaffetz also shot off a letter to Denis McDonough, Chief of Staff at White House, seeking the documents from the internal review conducted by the White House counsel on the incident.
White House Denial
White House Spokesman Eric Schultz clarified that the White House counsel had sought information from the Secret Service at that time, reports NY Post. Schultz said there was no coverup and that the evidence was a just a hotel log. The Washington Post reports that the log showed Dach had a woman registered to his room after midnight of April 4, 2012. However, White House rejected that charge and stood by the volunteer and said he was wrongly implicated and the hotel records were inaccurate.