Memo: State chiefs killed inquiries into slayings, sex

Oren Dorell@OrenDorell | USA TODAY

Senior officials at the State Department under Hillary Rodham Clinton interfered in probes of deadly shootings, drug overdoses and illegal sex and altered a report to Congress to hide the allegations, according to documents and the chairman of a House oversight committee.

The State Department's Office of the Inspector General described the allegations in detail and suggested ways to address them, but senior officials balked, says Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

When State Department personnel reviewed the inspector general's draft report, a senior State official said, "This is going to kill us," Issa stated in a letter Wednesday to State's deputy inspector general.

"Subsequently, all references to the specific cases described in the internal Inspector General memorandum were removed from the OIG final report," Issa wrote.

The letter demanded that the OIG provide more documents on the allegations and submit to briefings about what happened. Issa did not identify the senior State officials involved.

Documents from a former OIG inspector Aurelia Fedenisn to lawmakers that were obtained by USA TODAY through her lawyer include allegations from State's Diplomatic Security Service that its work was interfered with by senior officials and political appointees. The security service protects and investigates allegations against State staff.

The senior officials at State killed multiple investigations into the behavior of personnel that could have made them vulnerable to pressure from foreign spy agencies, the IG stated.

Clinton was unaware of the investigations mentioned in the Office of the Inspector General documents, her spokesman Nicholas Merrill told CNN.

"We learned of it from the media and don't know anything beyond what's been reported," Merrill said in a written statement.

Among the allegations uncovered by the OIG but kept from Congress:

•The U.S. ambassador to Belgium "routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children." CBS News identified the ambassador as Howard Gutman, who called the accusations "baseless." State Department Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy ordered an end to the investigation.

•Clinton's chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, allegedly interceded in an investigation by the Diplomatic Security Service into an affair between then-Iraq ambassador-designate Brett McGurk and Wall Street Journal reporter Gina Chon.

•State's former regional security officer in Beirut, Chuck Lisenbee, allegedly sexually assaulted guards and was accused of similar assaults in Baghdad, Khartoum and Monrovia. Justine Sincavage, then-director of Diplomatic Security Service, called the allegations a "witch hunt" and gave agents "only three days" to investigate, and no charges were brought, according to the memo.

•Three members of Clinton's security detail admitted to hiring prostitutes while on foreign trips and were given suspensions of one day. An investigator for the Diplomatic Security Service subsequently launched an investigation into similar allegations against four other members of Clinton's security detail but was ordered by Kimber Davidson, chief of the special investigations division, and Rob Kelty, his deputy, to shut down the investigation, the memo says.

•The Diplomatic Security Service said William Brownfield, assistant secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, "gave the impression" that a probe of the shooting deaths of four Hondurans involving the Drug Enforcement Administration should not be pursued. The case remained open when the memo was written, as the DEA would not cooperate.

•Diplomatic security agents learned that James Combs, a senior diplomatic security agent in Baghdad, was having an extramarital affair with a subordinate and had numerous affairs with men over a 30-year span without the knowledge of his wife. This presented "counterintelligence concerns," but the investigation never reached a conclusion.

•A security contractor in Baghdad died of an overdose of methadone, which he was taking to counteract an addiction to the painkiller oxycodone. An underground drug ring may have been supplying the drugs, but State's regional security officer did not allow a special investigations agent to pursue that possibility, the memo says.

•In Miami, agents investigating a car accident by diplomatic security agent Evelyn Kittinger learned that she had been claiming full pay for several years "but had actually only worked very few hours," according to the memo. State Department supervisors told the investigator to advise her to resign to avoid facing criminal charges and a major fine.

Issa said the documents suggest that senior department officials exercised improper influence over criminal investigations and tried to hide the fact from Congress.

"If, in fact, the OIG limited the disclosure of inappropriate or potentially criminal behavior to Congress and the public because senior State Department officials were concerned about releasing damaging or embarrassing information, this raises serious concerns about the independence and professionalism of your office," Issa said.