Good news: White House investigation declares White House innocent in Secret Service scandal

The investigation began on Friday, was completed within 72 hours, and Carney won’t get into details. Sounds legit:

“There have been no specific credible allegations of misconduct by anyone on the White House advance team or the White House staff. Nevertheless, out of due diligence, the White House counsel’s office has conducted a review of the White House advance team,” Carney told reporters during the daily briefing…

“The incident we’re talking about here involved specific allegations of misconduct by the Secret Service and members of the military,” Carney stressed. “The decision to conduct a review here was made internally out of due diligence.” He would not discuss specifics about how the investigation was conducted or whether the findings would be shared with any contacts outside the White House…

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta confirmed today that one member of the White House Communications Agency — the military unit that provides communications support to the president when he travels — was also under investigation for alleged involvement in the incident.

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A reader who’s a lawyer e-mails to say that, given the short time frame involved, the “investigation” must have consisted mainly if not exclusively of interviewing the staff who went to Colombia, which would be next to useless. A real investigation starts with sifting through e-mails and other pertinent documents to gather facts, then using interviews to confront the staffers on the contents and fill in any informational gaps. If all they’re doing is asking people “you didn’t hire any hookers, did you?”, then all but the very dumbest staffer is safe. Which, of course, is just how Team O wants it. The last thing they need is for this scandal to migrate from the Secret Service and the military through the front door of the White House.

Any readers out there ever work as part of a politician’s advance team? I ask because I wonder if, by custom, political staffs and security staffs tend not to socialize much while abroad. They come from different professional cultures so relations between them may be more arm’s-length; if so, then it’s easier to believe that the Secret Service didn’t call up any White House pals to see if they wanted to tag along to hooker heaven. While you mull that, via the boss emeritus, here’s Carney spinning feebly about whether he’s aware that there are very few female Secret Service agents and why that might be. War on women?

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Ed Morrissey 10:40 PM | October 02, 2024
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