IG memo: US ambassador to Belgium ditched security detail to visit prostitutes

A top donor to President Obama’s 2008 campaign was investigated for allegedly having sex with prostitutes but remains at his post as the U.S. ambassador to Belgium.

Howard Gutman was investigated in 2011 for allegedly ditching his security detail in order to have sex with prostitutes, according to an internal inspector general memo obtained by the New York Post. 

The memo, which alleges political interference by State Department higher-ups in at least eight Diplomatic Security Service probes, was first reported by CBS on Monday, but Gutman’s name was not disclosed at the time.

It said the agent who began the probe “determined that the ambassador routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children.

{mosads}Gutman vehemently denied the allegations.

“I am angered and saddened by the baseless allegations that have appeared in the press and to watch the four years I have proudly served in Belgium smeared is devastating,” Gutman said in an emailed statement. “I live on a beautiful park in Brussels that you walk through to get to many locations and at no point have I ever engaged in any improper activity.”

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday that many of the cases in the leaked memo remain under investigation and called allegations that the department would seek to quash them “preposterous.” 

The memo also says that seven members of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s security detail brought prostitutes back to the hotels where she was staying in Russia and Colombia. 

The Post also identified the Beirut embassy official who allegedly sexually assaulted foreign embassy guards as Chuck Lisenbee and reported that Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, blocked an investigation into Obama’s pick to be ambassador to Iraq; Brett McGurk dropped out of contention last year after his extra-marital affair with a Wall Street Journal reporter covering him became public.

Gutman raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Obama’s 2008 campaign, according to the investigative Center for Responsive Politics. A former partner with the law firm Williams & Connolly, he bundled at least $500,000 for Obama’s campaign committee and another $275,000 for the president’s inauguration committee, and personally contributed at least $86,150 to Democratic candidates, parties and committees along with his wife since 1989.

Gutman is widely popular in Belgium, having been dubbed by the press as “the most popular ambassador ever in Belgium” and “The Ambassador Who Makes Us Love America Again” for visiting all 589 official cities, towns and communes in Belgium.

The chairman of the House Foreign Relations Affairs Committee, Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), vowed Monday to launch his own investigation into the cover-up allegations.

“I am appalled not only at the reported misconduct itself, but at the reported interference in the investigations of the misconduct,” Royce said in a statement. “The notion that any or all of the cases contained in news reports would not be investigated thoroughly by the Department is unthinkable.

“Department interference with the independence of any DSS investigations must be uncovered. I have asked my staff to begin an investigation into these allegations and intend to raise the issue with Secretary Kerry immediately.”

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