Senator: Secret Service calls for probe of charges
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press
Apr 17, 2012 3:25 PM CDT
FILE - in this March 30, 2011 file photo, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee ranking Republican Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. At least 20 women were involved in last weekend's hotel incident with Secret Service agents, U.S. Marines and prostitutes...   (Associated Press)

A senior Senate Republican says the head of the Secret Service is seeking an independent probe of an incident involving prostitutes and Service personnel in Colombia.

Sen. Charles Grassley says Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told him Tuesday that he has referred the matter to the agency's inspector general.

Other lawmakers Sullivan met with on Tuesday say he reports getting conflicting accounts about whether the 20 or 21 women who met with Secret Service members and military personnel in Cartagena were prostitutes.

The U.S. president's bodyguards are agents of the Secret Service.

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