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Attorney General To Employees: You Can't Solicit Prostitutes, Ever

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington.
Chip Somodevilla
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Getty Images
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington.

Attorney General Eric Holder sent a memo to all employees at the Department of Justice with a very simple directive: You are not allowed to solicit prostitutes — ever.

The memo follows an Inspector General report that found Drug Enforcement agents had "sex parties" in Colombia with prostitutes paid for by drug cartels.

In the memo, Holder writes that employees are not allowed to solicit prostitutes even on their free time or even in countries where it is "legal or tolerated."

Holder writes that the hiring of prostitutes threatens the department "not simply because it invites extortion, blackmail, and leaks of sensitive or classified information, but also because it undermines the Department's effort to erradicate the scourge of human trafficking."

NPR's Carrie Johnson reports that the House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee plan hearings next week on what they are terming "federal agents gone wild."

We'll leave you with a copy of the memo:

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.