Two prostitutes involved in the U.S. Secret Service scandal claimed they were offered money by another escort, Dania Suarez, to drug and obtain information from agents.
A lawyer representing Ingrid Rincon and Jhosel Fernandez accused Suarez of offering the pair over $56,000 to place drugs in agents’ drinks to extract sensitive information at the behest of an Arab man that Suarez has yet to confirm was a former client.
“They flatly refused, because they were afraid of the implications that this could bring,” said the women’s lawyer, Pedro Aponte, who said the two travelled to Bogota after they received death threats over their refusal.
“This global smear campaign was orchestrated by the Arab citizen who took Dania Suarez Londoño to Dubai, to avoid harrasment from the international press,” he added.
Suarez revealed in a joint interview with W Radio and Caracol TV May 4 that she flew to Dubai, United Arab Emirates in the aftermath of the scandal to escape media scrutiny that has “damaged her life.”
Abelardo de la Espriella, the lawyer representing Suarez, called the claims “outrageous” considering his client was the one who went public with the scandal to Colombian authorities.
He said Suarez is “willing to testify to U.S. authorities with a polygraph test” to determine her involvement in the scandal. Espriella is in the process of filing a defamation suit against the two prostitutes.
Suarez claimed she could have easily procured sensitive information from her client, who fell asleep in his hotel room with his luggage and files easily accessible.
“If I was a terrorist I would have been able to do a thousand things,” she said. “I could have gotten security information if I had wanted.”
Secret Service agents hired 21 prostitutes days ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s arrival for the Summit of the Americas, a political conference that was hosted in Cartagena. The scandal made international headlines after police got involved in a confrontation between Suarez and Arthur Huntington, the agent who refused to pay the $800 they intially agreed upon.
On May 1 U.S. authorities released a report establishing the prostitutes did not have ties to terrorist organizations or drug cartels.