Politics

White House Aide Linked To Prostitution Scandal Was Hired By Anti-Prostitution State Dept.

Neil Munro White House Correspondent
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The White House aide involved in the Secret Service prostitute scandal in Cartagena, Columbia, works for the government agency that is promoting worldwide stigma against the use of prostitutes.

“Governments can lead both in practice and by example by implementing zero-tolerance policies for employees,” says a State Department policy declaration, “Prevention: Fighting Sex Trafficking by Curbing Demand for Prostitution.”

The staffer, Jonathan Dach, was hired as a contract policy adviser in the State Department’s Office on Global Women’s Issues this year.

The office is directed by the Office of the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights.

Dach was hired after the White House’s top lawyer — Kathryn Ruemmler — reportedly hid his role in the Cartagena scandal, which eventually ended or damaged the careers of 10 Secret Service agents.

The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons is supposedly leading the administration’s moral push against the trafficking of prostitutes. Its web page highlights a quote attributed to President Barack Obama.

“It ought to concern every person, because it is a debasement of our common humanity,” according to Obama.

“It ought to concern every community, because it tears at our social fabric. It ought to concern every business, because it distorts markets. It ought to concern every nation, because it endangers public health and fuels violence and organized crime. I’m talking about the injustice, the outrage, of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name — modern slavery.”

The office touts its “zero tolerance” policy on the hiring of prostitutes.

“The fact remains: if there were no demand for commercial sex, trafficking in persons for commercial sexual exploitation would not exist in the form it does today,” says the policy document.

“If paying for sex is prohibited for those who work for, or do business with, a government, the ripple effects could be far-reaching,” says the document.

“This reality underscores the need for continued strong efforts to reduce demand for sex trafficking by enacting policies and promoting cultural attitudes that reject the idea of paying for sex,” it says.

Before he was hired by the State Department, the White House’s lawyer, Ruemmler, however, created a loophole to justify its protection of Dach.

“Administration officials interviewed by The Post earlier this year said there was no reason to investigate Dach beyond interviews with him … because he was not a government employee and because prostitution is legal in parts of Colombia, including Cartagena,” according to The Washington Post.

At the time he hired the prostitute, he was technically an unpaid volunteer.

Moreover, one White House official told the Post, Ruemmler believed she had a moral duty to overlook Dach’s actions

“One senior administration official … said Ruemmler believed it would be a ‘real scandal’ if she had sent ‘a team of people to Colombia to investigate a volunteer over something that’s not a criminal act. … That would be insane.'”

Dach is also the son of a Democratic staffer and donor who was hired by Wal-Mart to cut deals with Democrat-run regulators. That hire was mutually beneficial, because Democratic pressure on Wal-Mart has sharply dropped over the last several years and Wal-Mart has increasingly cooperated with President Barack Obama’s progressive priorities.

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