"W. House ‘ho’ twist": Columbia Secret Service scandal update

White House staffers may be involved in the Colombian Secret Service sex scandal, it was reported last night.



Fox News Channel said it’s been told by “multiple’’ law-enforcement and congressional sources that two members of President Obama’s advance team checked hookers into their hotel, the Cartegena Hilton, before the presidential visit in April.



“Three US delegation members that stayed at the Hilton brought prostitutes back as overnight guests,’’ a high-ranking Secret Service official told Fox.



“One of them was ours [Secret Service], and the other two were White House staffers.’’



When the scandal broke, the administration denied that any of its staffers were involved.



A dozen Secret Service agents and another 12 members of the military were accused of bringing prostitutes to their rooms at another hotel in the city, the El Caribe. Eight of the presidential protectors were fired or resigned.



A report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General is expected to be released soon.


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Published: 8 hours ago


(Fox News) Federal law enforcement personnel and a congressional committee are anxiously awaiting an overdue inspector general’s report that they believe may reveal the involvement of two White House advance team members in the Secret Service prostitution scandal in Colombia earlier this year.



While much of the attention in the case has focused on the actions of Secret Service personnel, multiple law enforcement and congressional sources tell FoxNews.com that investigators also discovered two White House advance team members checked in prostitutes as overnight guests at a Cartagena hotel in the days before President Obama’s April 13 visit.



“Three U.S. delegation members that stayed at the Hilton brought prostitutes back as overnight guests. One of them was ours (Secret Service) and the other two were White House staffers,” a high-ranking Secret Service official told FoxNews.com. “We knew very early that White House staffers were involved.”




White House staffers 'DID bring Colombian hookers back to hotel where president later stayed'

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 22:14 EST, 19 September 2012
UPDATED: 22:15 EST, 19 September 2012

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..A new report is likely to reveal that White House staffers were involved in the Colombian prostitution scandal, with two members of the president's advance team bringing hookers back to the hotel where he later stayed.



The revelation, if proven true, contradicts the White House's original assertion that none of its staffers had patronized prostitutes in advance of Barack Obama's vision to Cartagena for the Summit of the Americas in April.

The scandal ensnared 13 Secret Service agents, seven Army soldiers, two US Marines and two DEA agents -- all of whom were sent to the resort city to prepare security and communications the week before the president was sent to arrive.





Dania Suarez was the prostitute at the centre of the scandal that gripped the Secret Service after one member paid her only $28 instead of her standard $800





Exposed: The incident became public on April 12 when Miss Suarez argued with a Secret Service agent over her payment in a hallway of the Caribe Hotel, pictured

Until now, the White House has avoided embarrassment in the scandal and claimed none of its own advance team had participated in the hard-partying or cavorting with sex workers that sullied the name of the Secret Service.



However, Fox News reports that an internal investigation by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General is likely to conclude two White House staffers picked up hookers and brought them back to the Cartagena Hilton where the president later stayed.





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The military personnel and all but one of the Secret Service agents implicated in the scandal had been staying at the Hotel Caribe -- a separate hotel.



A Secret Service official told Fox News: 'Three US delegation members that stayed at the Hilton brought prostitutes back as overnight guests. One of them was ours and the other two were White House staffers. We knew very early that White House staffers were involved.'





Flirtatious: Bikini-clad working girl Dania Suarez is at the centre of the Secret Service prostitution scandal



U.S. President Barack Obama walks to his limousine alongside Secret Service agents as he arrives at Norfolk Airport in Virginia. He was reported to be furious with the agency that provides him with protection.



Some in the Secret Service are beginning to worry that the report, which could be released as early as this week, has been whitewashed to remove or downplay the involvement of anyone working in the president's offices.



Two senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, sent a letter to the inspector general demanding to know the status of the report.

They also want to know whether earlier drafts of the report were changed after they were reviewed by the Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security.



A dozen Secret Service officers, agents and supervisors were implicated in the Colombia scandal. Eight have been forced out of the agency, three were cleared of serious misconduct and at least two employees are fighting to get their jobs back.

Controversial: Suárez leaped into notoriety after she provoked an incident at the Caribe Hotel with a Secret Service agent who refused to pay her the agreed price for a night of sex



Revelations: Miss Suarez spoke to a Colombian radio station about the scandal in May

The misconduct became public after a dispute over payment between a Secret Service agent and a prostitute at a Cartagena hotel on April 12.



All the alleged activities took place before Obama arrived in Cartagena for meetings with 33 other regional leaders, but the scandal overshadowed his visit.

Eventually, the prostitute at the centre of the scandal was revealed to be a 24-year-old woman called Dania Suarez.

Speaking on Spanish television in May she said the men were 'stupid brutes' and drinking vodka 'like it was water' in a local bar.



One of the men, identified as Arthur Huntington, would not pay the $800 he initially agreed to pay Miss Suarez.