WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senior State Department and Diplomatic Security officials may have covered up or stopped investigations of inappropriate or even criminal misconduct by staff, according to an internal memo from the department’s Office of the Inspector General. The allegations include soliciting sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children, engaging prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries, and involvement in an underground drug ring. The timeline surrounding the allegations places the incidents during former-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s tenure. Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America, responds:
“Even among all the many scandals grabbing headlines, this has got to be the most outrageous. The very idea that our nation’s diplomats were not stopped and prosecuted for hurting kids and women is deplorable and a moral outrage. However, for the State Department to shut down the investigations that looked into this illegal behavior in order to protect their image is beyond words. Americans should be outraged. If Hillary Clinton knew or was willfully ignorant of this information, then her career should be over.
This story also leads me to ask the question: Are these criminals still in foreign service? If so, we must act to remove them immediately. America’s influence around the world depends upon our moral authority, and this scandal greatly undermines it.”