Posted on 10/09/2014 8:00:08 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
David Nieland, who led the investigation for the DHS inspector general’s office, later told Senate aides examining the investigation that his superiors had asked him to keep those details out of the report. He also said that the request to leave the information out came from his superiors shortly after they met with Janet Napolitano, then the secretary of homeland security.
Nieland also said that he had been told to delay the release of the report until after the election.
A Washington Post story published Wednesday night alleges that the White House did not rigorously investigate information linking a volunteer for President Obama’s advance team to the 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia.
As the scandal cost several Several Secret agents their jobs, the White House denied that anyone from the White House was involved.
But The Washington Post reported that White House aides were given information by the Secret Service suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of volunteer, Jonathan Dach, after they had initially cleared him.
That evidence reportedly included logs from Dach's hotel room. The White House did not alter their position on Dach’s involvement after this evidence was provided.
Then-White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler and her staff interviewed the volunteer more than once, according to the Post, and decided that he was not guilty of any wrongdoing. Ruemmler is said to be in the running to replace Attorney General Eric Holder, who recently announced his intention to leave the administration.
Through his attorney, Dach denied to the Post that he hired a prostitute or that he brought anyone into his room on the night in question. Prostitution is legal in Cartagena, but hotels keep records of all guests for security reasons and check the identification of prostitutes to ensure that they are not underage.
The White House defended its investigation into Dach’s actions in Cartagena in a statement Wednesday evening.
“As was reported more than two years ago, the White House conducted an internal review that did not identify any inappropriate behavior on the part of the White House advance team,” said spokesman Eric Schultz.
“At the time, White House Counsel requested the Secret Service send over any information related to White House personnel engaging in inappropriate conduct – and indeed that is how the hotel log emerged, an analogous version of which proved to falsely implicate another agent who was subsequently cleared,” he said, alluding to the fact that records at a hotel different from the one Dach was staying at were shown to have falsely implicated a Secret Service agent as having hosted a prostitute on that trip.
Dach is currently employed on a federal contract as an advisor to the Office on Global Women’s Issues at the State Department. At the time of the trip to Cartagena, he was a student at Yale Law School.
He is also the son of Leslie Dach, a former lobbyist for Wal-Mart and a donor to Obama’s presidential campaign.
The Post story also says that a separate Department of Homeland Security investigation turned up additional evidence that Dach had used the services of a prostitute on the night in question, but that those allegations were kept out of the resulting report because of the effect they could have on the 2012 presidential election.
That investigation — run by the DHS inspector general’s office — reportedly linked Dach to a woman who advertised herself on the Internet as a prostitute and found additional evidence that he had hosted an overnight guest on the evening in question. DHS investigators also reportedly interviewed an individual who said he had seen Dach with a woman he believed to be a prostitute.
David Nieland, who led the investigation for the DHS inspector general’s office, later told Senate aides examining the investigation that his superiors had asked him to keep those details out of the report. He also said that the request to leave the information out came from his superiors shortly after they met with Janet Napolitano, then the secretary of homeland security.
Nieland also said that he had been told to delay the release of the report until after the election.
Napolitano, through a spokesperson, told the Post that she never “ordered that anything be deleted in the inspector general’s report or asked for a delay.”
The White House denied any interference with the inspector general’s report.
“As the bipartisan Senate investigation found … changes made to the IG Report were ‘part of the ordinary process of editing the report’ and found that allegations that changes were made because they were embarrassing could not be substantiated,” Schultz said.
The report from the Post comes after a bruising month for the agency tasked with protecting the president. Former director Julia Pierson resigned last week after a series of lapses in presidential security.
“He is also the son of Leslie Dach, a former lobbyist for Wal-Mart and a donor to Obama’s presidential campaign.”
Well there is an inconvenient truth!
"These are long paid for. Half go to the
US State Department's Office of Global Women's Issues.
Half to the White House Press Secretary pool."
“.....Dach’s father, Leslie Dach, is a prominent Democratic donor who gave $23,900 to the party in 2008 to help elect Obama. In his previous job as a top lobbyist for Wal-Mart, he partnered with the White House on high-profile projects, including Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign.
He, too, joined the Obama administration this year. In July, he was named a senior counselor with the Department of Health and Human Services, where part of his responsibilities include handling the next phase of the Affordable Care Act....”
Abuse of official powers to delay and subvert justice for political purposes? If the White House was occupied by a republican (such as Nixon, but any republican would do), the Democrats would be shrieking for impeachment. I miss the rule of law.
...
Dach is currently employed on a federal contract as an advisor to the Office on Global Women’s Issues at the State Department. At the time of the trip to Cartagena, he was a student at Yale Law School.
He is also the son of Leslie Dach, a former lobbyist for Wal-Mart and a donor to Obama’s presidential campaign.
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Surprising he story isn't getting more play here.
It's funny that the guy who had a prostitute in his room is now supposed to be an expert on the problems of Third World women for the government.
Think what Saturday Night Live would do with the story if they were still on the air!
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