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In Colombia on Friday, Colombian prosecutors spent more than three hours questioning a taxi driver who led reporters to the home of the young woman who he said was the prostitute who launched the scandal by complaining of not being paid by a Secret Service agent at the Hotel Caribe. A senior official in the local prosecutor's office said the driver, Jose Pena, was not suspected of any crime but that a Colombian investigation into the case began Thursday to ensure that none of the prostitutes involved was a minor. There is no information indicating a crime was committed, said the official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name. The prosecutor's office official said the Colombian investigation was separate from U.S. probes and that Colombian investigators had not been in touch with the U.S. investigators. The official also said the Colombian investigators did not have and had not asked for a copy of the security videotapes from inside the hotel. Pena told the AP Friday morning that he had not spoken with any U.S. investigators. He did not answer his phone after he met with Colombian investigators.
The lawyer for ousted Secret Service supervisors David Chaney and Greg Stokes, Lawrence Berger of New York, said Friday that leaks surrounding the investigations "distort the process." Regardless of what happened inside hotel rooms, Berger said, it never jeopardized the president's security. Berger said he could not comment on the woman's claims about being paid for sex, but he added, "I don't think anything she has said is material to any of the issues I am pressing with my clients." "Nothing that has been reported in the press in any way negatively or adversely impacted the mission of that agency or the safety of the president of the United States," Berger said. Chaney and Stokes were forced out of the agency Wednesday. A third agent, who has not been identified and was not a supervisor, resigned. On Chaney's Facebook account, which was made inaccessible on Friday, Chaney joked about his work with former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin while he was protecting her in 2008. The AP published a photograph it took of Chaney working in Palin's protective detail in October 2008 during a campaign rally in Carson, Calif. "I was really checking her out, if you know what i mean?" Chaney wrote after a friend commented on the picture posted in January 2009 on Chaney's Facebook account. Speaking on Fox News late Thursday, Palin said the joke was on Chaney. "Well, check this out, buddy -- you're fired!" Palin said. The agency's investigation has included interviews of agents and hotel staff. Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said this week that investigators in Colombia have not been able to interview the women. The affair has also prompted a military investigation of the service members, including six members of the Army, two Navy Explosive Ordinance Disposal technicians, two Marine dog handlers and an Air Force airman. An Air Force colonel and a military lawyer were also dispatched to Colombia this week. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, patronizing prostitutes is a crime for military personnel. It is referred to as "compelling, inducing, enticing or procuring a person to have sex in exchange for money; or receiving money for arranged sex." Officials from U.S. Southern Command, which organized the military role for the security operation, have not provided details of its probe beyond saying that at least some of the military members violated curfew and may have been involved in "inappropriate conduct." White House press secretary Jay Carney has said it is "preposterous to politicize" the issue, responding to criticism from Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions and Palin, who have said the allegations reflect poor management of the government under Obama. Palin described the affair Thursday as a "symptom of government run amok." "It's like, who's minding the store around here?" Palin said.
[Associated
Press;
Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan, Laurie Kellman, Robert Burns, Larry Margasak, and Julie Pace in Washington, Nomaan Merchant in Dallas and Frank Bajak in Cartagena, Colombia, contributed to this report.
Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acaldwellap.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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