More Secret Service Resignations Amid Colombia Scandal
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MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Three additional Secret Service agents involved in the Colombian prostitution scandal have resigned, ABC News has learned.
The identities of two supervisors who lost their jobs were reported on Thursday, and another agent was reportedly leaving the agency voluntarily. The Washington Post reported that one of the supervisors, David Chaney, joked about Sarah Palin on his Facebook page during the 2008 campaign.
The other ousted supervisor, Greg Stokes, an agent in the K-9 unit, plans to come forward early next week to publicly challenge his dismissal from the Secret Service, a source tells ABC News.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said at his briefing with the press on Friday that he was not “in a position to answer questions” about whether the prostitutes came into contact with confidential information. He also said he’s “not prepared to address” whether Secret Service director Mark Sullivan’s oversight has been insufficient.
Chaney reportedly once posted on Facebook a photo of himself on the job behind Palin during the 2008 campaign and wrote next to it, “I was really checking her out, if you know what i mean?”
Palin, always quick to fire back, used the friendly atmosphere on Fox News to rib the ex-agent.
“Well, this agent, who was kind of ridiculous there in posting pictures and comments about checking someone out — well, check this out, bodyguard. You’re fired,” Palin said on Greta Van Susteren’s show Thursday night.
Chaney’s Facebook posting was reported by The Washington Post, which said the 48-year-old Secret Service veteran is married and has an adult son.
“It’s our ultimate position that nothing they may or may not have done in Colombia negatively impacted the efficiency of their mission,” the agents’ lawyer, Lawrence Berger, told the paper. “Nothing that has been reported to have been done has impacted negatively their mission or the president’s visit.”
ABC News has learned that some of the prostitutes who allegedly met with the agents in Colombia have been interviewed by investigators, but American officials are still looking for others.
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