Grassley Calls on WH to Release Secret Service Findings

Sen. Chuck Grassley is pressuring the White House to publicly release a report of its own findings from a quick investigation to determine if any of its direct employees were involved in the Secret Service Columbian prostitute scandal.

 

Appearing on Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” Monday, the Iowa Republican said he sent a letter Friday to the White House asking for an investigation to determine if any presidential personnel were involved in any “shenanigans.”

 

“They have come to the conclusion there are not problems,” Grassley said of the White House announcement Monday that no presidential personnel were involved. “Okay, the natural follow-up to that is: Are they going to make it public?

 

“This administration announced three years ago they are to be the most transparent of any administration in the history of our country. We need to know the results of this investigation,” added Grassley, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

 

So far, at least 12 Secret Service agents and 12 Defense Department personnel who were part of President Barack Obama’s advance security team have been implicated in the incident involving prostitutes, which took place before the president’s arrival in Cartegena, Colombia on April 14.

 

Six Secret Service agents have resigned, and one military aide assigned to the White House Communications Agency has reportedly been put on leave, according to Reuters and NBC News.

 

But Grassley is still not satisfied that no presidential staffers were involved. He called for an independent probe of the White House headed by the inspector general.

 

“They could have done a perfect job. There is nothing wrong, and I hope there is nothing wrong,” he said of the White House investigation. “But one of the ways to make sure there is credibility for everything is to let the Office of [the] Inspector General — or some independent person — have access to it. Have access to the people and ask the same questions [the White House] asked.”

 

At the moment, there are multiple investigations moving forward, three of them being conducted on parallel courses by the Secret Service and the Defense Department under the umbrella of the Homeland Security Department. At least two investigations are also gearing up on Capitol Hill involving the Homeland Security committees of both the House and Senate.

 

The common goal of all of them, Grassley said, should be to “make sure that this does not go deeper.”
 

“If it does go deeper, we have got major problems,” he said. “And those major problems involve national security and may involve the protection of the president.”