Cheryl Mills and Patrick Kennedy just keep turning up at the center of State Department fiascos and scandals. The latest is one that broke Monday — a State Department memo details how they stepped in to stifle investigations into several ongoing department scandals.
Now the NY Post has more details. It turns out that the cover-up was carried out to help a major Obama campaign bundler who was appointed US ambassador to Belgium.
A chief investigator for the agency’s inspector general wrote a memo outlining eight cases that were derailed by senior officials, including one instance of interference by Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills.
Any mention of the cases was removed from an IG report about problems within the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS), which provides protection and investigates crimes involving any State Department workers overseas.
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Among the bombshell findings:
* A DS agent was called off a case against US Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman over claims that he solicited prostitutes, including minors.
“The agent began his investigation and had determined that the ambassador routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children,” says the memo.
“The ambassador’s protective detail and the embassy’s surveillance detection team . . . were well aware of the behavior.”
Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy ordered the investigation ceased, and the ambassador remains in place, according to the memo.
Gutman rolled up $500,000 in donations to Obama’s 2008 campaign and helped finance the inauguration. Apparently that makes him untouchable to all but hookers of all ages.
Meanwhile, Mills turned up scuttling an investigation of drug use by State Department officials in Baghdad. Because, really, no one should worry about US diplomatic officials who use illegal and mind-altering drugs in a war zone.
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