More whistleblowers coming forward against investigator, senator says

There may be yet more allegations to come out against the federal inspector general already accused of a cover-up, nepotism and abuse of authority - the sorts of misdeeds he is responsible for outing.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, said Friday on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” that since he and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, went public with the claims on Thursday that “more whistleblowers are coming forward.”

The two senators wrote in a letter to Charles Edwards, the Department of Homeland Security’s acting inspector general, that they “have been alerted by numerous whistleblowers to allegations of misconduct and abuse by you in your position.”

Those included a cover-up involving Secret Service agents who solicited prostitutes while in Cartagena, Columbia, last year. The inspector general investigation into that incident implicated at least one Drug Enforcement Administration agent in the arrangement, but Johnson said it was possible there was “White House personnel involvement in the scandal.”

He said whistleblowers have said “the solicitation of prostitutes was far more widespread than the Secret Service.”

“We’re starting to see a very disturbing pattern with this White House being involved, applying political pressure in these independent offices,” said Johnston.

“It starts with the covering up of and the changing of the talking points in Benghazi, certainly the scrubbing, the white washing, the political pressure of delaying reports until after the election,” he continued, referring to a separate review of the attack at a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya last year. That attack resulted in the death of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, and Republicans have sharply criticized the President Barack Obama, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other officials for their handling of and statements on the attack.

A spokesman for the Inspector General's office told CNN after the allegations became public on Thursday that Edwards could not be reached for comment while on a family vacation in India.

Johnson indicated he would continue probing because “we’ve reached road block after road block which really makes me suspicious.”