The Secret Service scandal

A look at the biggest scandal in the modern history of the Secret Service involving agents hiring prostitutes in Colombia.

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May 23, 2012

Kevin S. Simpson, left, chief of the Secret Service Uniformed Division, Mark Sullivan, second from left, director of the Secret Service, and others leave after a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sullivan was called to testify about the recent prostitution scandal involving members of the Secret Service in Cartagena, Colombia.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images

May 23, 2012

Acting Homeland Security Inspector General Charles Edwards testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in Washington about the recent prostitution scandal.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

May 23, 2012

Mark Sullivan, director of the Secret Service, speaks during a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images

May 23, 2012

Secret Service Uniformed Division Chief Kevin S. Simpson, second from left, attends a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in Washington about the recent prostitution scandal.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Dania Londono Suarez speaks during an interview with W Radio and Caracol TV in Madrid. She is involved in the prostitution scandal implicating Secret Service agents and military personnel working on a visit to Colombia by President Obama for the Summit of the Americas last month. She said that for more than three hours she begged to be paid the agreed price for her services, which would have prevented the scandal, she said.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Investigators believe that as many as 21 women were brought by Secret Service and military personnel to the Hotel Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, in early April during a night of carousing before President Obama’s visit to the Summit of the Americas.

/ Reuters

David Chaney, right, who identified himself on his Facebook account as a member of former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s Secret Service detail, watches Palin as she speaks to the media in Denver in 2008. Chaney is one of the Secret Service supervisors ousted from the agency for their involvement in the Colombia prostitution scandal. He posted this photo on Facebook.

Chris Carlson / AP

President Obama speaks during a joint news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos during the sixth Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testifies at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington. Napolitano told lawmakers that she and President Obama had "full confidence" in the Secret Service director. She has pledged a thorough investigation into the Secret Service prostitution scandal.

Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images

Senate Judiciary Committee member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) told reporters that the president should take responsibility for the Secret Service, General Services Administration and Solyndra scandals and insist on a government culture in which taxpayer dollars are not wasted. He said, "I don't sense that this president has shown that kind of managerial leadership."

Susan Walsh / AP

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is among congressional investigators probing the Secret Service prostitution scandal.

Karen Bleier / AFP/Getty Images

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), House Homeland Security Committee chairman, is among congressional investigators probing the Secret Service prostitution scandal.

Alex Brandon / AP

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, a 29-year veteran of the Secret Service, now leads an agency caught up in its worst scandal in modern times as investigators probe allegations that his agents brought prostitutes to a Colombia hotel.

Larry Downing / Reuters

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