bjbjLULU JUDY WOODRUFF: Several more Secret Service careers are ending amid a scandal
involving allegations of prostitution and a presidential trip. Ray Suarez has the story.
RAY SUAREZ: With new details unfolding all week about just what happened during the president's
trip to the Summit of the Americas, the Associated Press is reporting the Secret Service has
placed another employee newly implicated in the scandal on leave. Officials tell the AP
two more agents are resigning today, while another has been fired, bringing to six the
Secret Service employees forced out so far. For Secret Service agents, it's been a week
of disclosures culminating in the news that more will lose their jobs. They were among
11 agents recalled from this hotel in Cartagena, Colombia, last week on allegations they used
prostitutes they met at a local strip club. The Washington Post today identified two of
the three agents ousted earlier this week in the scandal. It turned out one of them,
David Chaney, had posted a picture on Facebook of his time protecting Republican vice presidential
nominee Sarah Palin in 2008. His comment read, "I was really checking her out, if you know
what I mean." Palin had her say on FOX News last night. SARAH PALIN (R), former Alaska
governor: Well, check this out, bodyguard. You're fired. This president, for one, he
better be wary there of when Secret Service is accompanying his family on vacation. They
may be checking out the first lady. RAY SUAREZ: Meanwhile, Pentagon officials are looking
into allegations that 11 service members were involved as well. And in Cartagena, U.S. and
Colombian authorities continue to investigate the club where the Americans allegedly picked
up as many as 21 prostitutes. For the latest details, we turn to Julie Pace, a White House
reporter with The Associated Press. She traveled to Colombia with Mr. Obama and has been tracking
developments this week from Washington. And is the investigation turning up new details
that's pulling in these new people under suspicion? JULIE PACE, Associated Press: It appears that
there are new details that are emerging from this investigation. Already today, we ve heard
from the Secret Service, through briefings that they are having with lawmakers and federal
officials, that the number of Secret Service employees that are being investigating is
up from 11 to 12. We heard from the U.S. military today that the number of people that they're
investigating in this is up from 10 to 11. So the scope of the investigation continues
to widen. The Secret Service is continuing to brief lawmakers on the Hill. They are briefing
the White House. We heard that the president today just received a briefing from Director
Mark Sullivan, the director of the Secret Service. So it appears, as more people are
being implicated in this investigation, that there are new details that the investigators
are learning. RAY SUAREZ: Careers are ending, but some people are leaving on their own steam
and some are being fired. What's the difference and why is it important? JULIE PACE: It's
a small difference, but it is important. The people in the agency who are being fired are
being fired because the investigators are finding cause. The people who are resigning
are perhaps being implicated to some degree. They may be making a choice that, for their
careers, perhaps for their family, that it's best for them to resign, maybe to try to avoid
being fired. But, as I said, it s an important difference, but it is a small difference.
RAY SUAREZ: With these latest departures that have been reported throughout the day by the
AP and others, how many people remain yet to learn their fates? Are they fighting their
dismissal, and what are they basing that fight on; do we know? JULIE PACE: Well, where we
stand right now is we had three people on Wednesday who were forced out of a job. Today,
we're reporting that there are three additional people who are being forced out of their jobs.
And with the disclosure that there are 12 people that the Secret Service is investigating,
that means that there are six others at this point, perhaps more, we don't know, that are
still being investigated. It remains unclear whether these people are going to be able
to hang on to their jobs or whether we're going to see more firings. RAY SUAREZ: Susan
Collins of Maine, the senator, has asked openly whether there has to have been previous incidents
of this kind. She doubted that this could have been the first time these advance teams
ever could have behaved in this manner. Can we expect that previous trips are now under
the same kind of microscope that the Colombian trip was? JULIE PACE: It's certainly possible,
because this is raising questions about the president's security. That's really what this
all comes down to right now. And that means that there are going to be questions not just
about what happened in Colombia last weekend, but about what happened when the president
has traveled overseas many times previously, when he s traveled domestically as well. These
agents and officers travel with the president everywhere that he goes. So it's a question
that's being asked at the Secret Service. It's a question that lawmakers certainly are
asking, and that the White House is frankly asking, and all of us in the press corps obviously
as well. RAY SUAREZ: What s a jump team, who are they, and what do they do? JULIE PACE:
So a jump team is one of the teams that goes to the place where the president is going
to go ahead of him. Some of them travel on a support plane. Some of them travel on the
plane that actually brings the president's limousine, some of the equipment that travels
ahead of the president. So they arrive at the site before the president does. You know,
the president arrived in Colombia on Friday. The incident that we're talking about happened
Wednesday, Thursday. So these agents and officers had been on the ground for some time before
the president got there. RAY SUAREZ: Now, with the addition of a new servicemember in
this inquiry as well, let's ask a little bit more about that. Are they in a different line
of command? Is the inquiry being handled internally by the Justice Department separately from
the one that involves the Secret Service agents? JULIE PACE: Well, right now, everybody seems
to be saying the Secret Service has a process happening. The Secret Service appears to be
having a thorough process. So people want to let this process play out right now. You
have a lot of talk about whether Congress, which does have an oversight role here, may
have its own congressional investigation. But so far what we ve heard is everybody wants
to let the Secret Service have their own investigation. There has been some discussion about Mark
Sullivan, the Secret Service director, calling for an independent review of this investigation.
But right now everything that everyone is focused on is what is happening inside the
Secret Service. RAY SUAREZ: Any more known about this big party itself? Today and through
the week, it's been mentioned that 20 or 21 women were involved and a similar number of
men. What you can tell us about that? JULIE PACE: Well, right now, we do know from some
of the lawmakers that have been briefed on Capitol Hill that there were about 20 to 21
women who were brought back to the Hotel Caribe, which is in Cartagena. It is not the hotel
that the president stayed at. And there are a lot of rumors, a lot of witness accounts
that are coming out of Colombia right now. Associated Press reporters on the ground there
have been told that the agents who we believe to be involved in this incident were drinking
heavily. There are reports that they were going out to a bar and partying and bringing
people back to the hotel. But right now we're trying to really be cautious about a lot of
that detail. You have investigators who are down there trying to dig up that information
as well. So we do have some rumors coming out of there, but we're trying to be cautious
about what we are reporting as this investigation unfolds. RAY SUAREZ: But that would be the
venue that involved not only Secret Service agencies, but -- agents, but the service people
as well? JULIE PACE: Exactly. They stayed in the exact same hotel. And really, you know,
the information that we're getting is very specific at this point to the Secret Service
agents that are involved. The military side of this, we're not hearing a lot of details
so far. All we hear from the military is that the now 11 service members that are being
investigated were staying at the same hotel, the Hotel Caribe, as the Secret Service officers,
and that they are being investigated for some type of misconduct. So that is where a lot
of the unknown questions are right now on the military side of things. RAY SUAREZ: Julie
Pace of The Associated Press, thanks for joining us. JULIE PACE: Thank you. urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
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