* Letter from Inspector General details events
* Six women paid, four others refused payment
* No threat to Obama's safety or security
WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Thirteen employees of the
U.S. Secret Service were entangled in a prostitution scandal in
Colombia earlier this year but their actions did not compromise
the safety of the president, a Department of Homeland Security
investigation found.
In a letter to members of Congress obtained by Reuters on
Friday, acting Homeland Security Inspector General Charles
Edwards summarized his agency's findings after an investigation
into the biggest scandal to hit the Secret Service.
A dozen Secret Service employees were accused of misconduct
for bringing women, some of them prostitutes, back to their
hotel rooms in Colombia in April ahead of President Barack
Obama's visit to Cartagena. At least seven of the Secret Service
employees have left the agency since the scandal was uncovered.
"Although we found that these agents engaged in misconduct,
our investigation developed no evidence to suggest that the
actions of (U.S. Secret Service) personnel in Cartagena
compromised the safety and security of the president or any
sensitive information during this trip," Edwards wrote.
The letter was sent to the members of Congress in advance of
a briefing on the investigation. In his letter Edwards said his
office would not disclose the investigative report or discuss it
publicly.
Edwards said the Inspector General's office interviewed or
attempted to interview 251 Secret Service personnel and reviewed
travel records, hotel registries and cables as well as personnel
assignments and Secret Service and U.S. Embassy documents.
Based on the review and interviews, he said his office could
identify 13 Secret Service employees who "had personal
encounters" with Colombian women at two hotels and a private
residence.
Six of the women were paid by the Secret Service employees,
four asked for money but were not paid and three left the hotel
rooms without asking for money, Edwards said. Prostitution is
legal in Colombia.
One of the women who was paid was initially refused payment
but she brought a Colombian police officer to the door of the
Secret Service employee's room. When he did not answer the door,
a different Secret Service employee paid her, the letter said.
A hotel registry showed that a Defense Department employee
working with the White House Communication Agency and another
person possibly affiliated with the White House advance
operation also might have had contact with foreign nationals,
the letter said.
But a White House review concluded that no members of the
advance team engaged in inappropriate conduct during Obama's
trip to Colombia, a White House official said.
Senator Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Homeland
Security committee, said she was troubled about the different
conclusions on possible involvement by White House staff and
said it raised concerns about the credibility of the White House
investigation.
The U.S. military has completed a separate report about a
dozen U.S. military service members who brought Colombian women
to their hotel rooms in Cartagena. The military has said it was
not pursuing criminal charges against the service members but
was pursuing lesser punishments instead.
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Matt Spetalnick; Writing by
Deborah Charles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)