Lawmakers skeptical Secret Service scandal was one-time deal

ByABC News
May 23, 2012, 9:27 PM

WASHINGTON -- An initial Senate investigation of the Secret Service following last month's prostitution scandal in Colombia has turned up no pattern of misconduct, but skeptical lawmakers said Wednesday they are convinced it wasn't an isolated incident.

A separate internal Secret Service probe showed that the 12 men involved had no documents or details of President Obama's upcoming movements that could have breached security, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told a Senate committee. In addition, allegations of similar misconduct in El Salvador a year earlier proved unfounded, he said.

Still, a separate Senate committee investigation found 64 allegations of sexual misconduct by employees over five years — most involving e-mails or material sent online — and 30 more involving alcohol, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., said. Three cases involved inappropriate relationships with foreign nationals, and one was a complaint of non-consensual sex.

Now a third probe by the protective agency's inspector general will include interviews with the dozen agents involved in last month's alcohol-infused hijinks, said acting inspector general Charles Edwards. Two of them, in fact, were being interviewed Wednesday afternoon.

Sullivan told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee he does not believe the incident in Cartagena on April 11 reflects a pattern of misconduct. Rather, he said, the agents involved just "did some really dumb things" and "made very bad decisions."

That isn't how Lieberman, the panel chairman, and ranking Republican member Susan Collins assessed the situation, however. Both came away concerned that Sullivan, whom they support, has blinders on when it comes to the culture of his agency.

"He's got to assume that what happened in Cartagena was not an isolated incident," said Lieberman, who had Secret Service protection while running for vice president in 2000. He urged Sullivan to implement "rules and procedures to make sure to the best of your human ability that it never happens again."

"He has a broader problem than just this one incident," Collins said. She noted that the agents in Colombia acted separately, picking up prostitutes in four nightclubs.

The scandal broke on the eve of Obama's trip to Colombia for the annual Summit of the Americas April 13-15. The agents involved, who were among about 200 agents on hand for the event, were ordered back to the U.S. before the president arrived. Three have since been cleared of the most serious misconduct.

In the wake of the scandal, investigators have looked back over time for indications that agents customarily drink and party when out of the country. In the few serious cases involving foreign nationals that have emerged, Sullivan said, prostitution was not involved, and "appropriate administrative action" was taken. The case of alleged non-consensual sex resulted in no criminal charges, he said.

Several senators questioned whether the Cartegena scandal shows that a culture exists in the Secret Service that allows such behavior. They said steps should be taken, including more frequent polygraph tests and stricter guidelines, to guard against more embarrassments — particularly during what Sullivan said is a "very challenging" election year facing the Secret Service.

"I do not think this is indicative of the overwhelming majority of our men and women," Sullivan said. "I just do not think that this is something that is systemic."