US News

Three Secret Service agents out in wake of Colombia scandal; escort says argument was over $800

CARTAGENA, Colombia –Three Secret Service employees have left the agency in the wake of allegations that agents brought Colombian prostitutes to their hotel as they prepared for President Barack Obama’s arrival in Cartagena, the Secret Service announced Wednesday.

One supervisor was allowed to retire, while another supervisor has been proposed for removal, the agency said in a statement. A third non-supervisory employee has resigned.

Eight agents remain on administrative leave.

Secret Service Assistant Director Paul Morrissey said in the statement that the investigation into the Cartagena scandal was in its early stages and ongoing.

Morrissey also confirmed the agency is using polygraph exams in its probe.

Eleven Secret Service agents and 10 US service members had been implicated in the incident, which also allegedly involved up to 21 women.

One of the escorts involved in the scandal claims she had told him it was $800 for her services but he only wanted to give her $30, triggering the largest scandal in the agency’s history, according to a new report

The 24-year-old single mother, in an interview with the New York Times in her living room, said she and a girlfriend had been approached by a group of American men at a discotheque prior to the arrival of President Barack Obama for an international summit.

“They never told me they were with Obama,” she told the Times. “They were very discreet.”

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She said the men bought two bottles of vodka for the table and one man eventually invited her back to his room at the Hotel Caribe.

The woman, who declined to give her full name – and whose account could not be independently verified – said they stopped on the way to buy condoms and she told him he would have to give her a gift of $800.

That price, she said, indicated she was an escort, not a prostitute. “An escort is someone who a man can take out to dinner,” the woman told the Times. “She can dress nicely, wear nice makeup, speak and act like a lady. That’s me.”

The next morning, she said, the man told her he had been drunk when they discussed the price and instead offered 50,000 pesos or about $30.

As people gathered in the hallway – including another escort, two policemen, others from the American group and a hotel security officer – she eventually lowered her demand to $250 to cover the amount she said she needed to pay the man who helped her find customers.

The American men eventually gave her a combination of dollars and local currency worth about $225 and she left.

The woman said she now was “scared” and feared the man might retaliate against her, the Times reported.

“This is something really big,” she said. “This is the government of the United States. I have nervous attacks. I cry all the time.”