Ash Carter’s former military aide cited for ‘improper’ actions

Published 1:30 am Thursday, October 6, 2016

By Craig Whitlock

The Washington Post

For the past year, one of the biggest secrets at the Pentagon has been what prompted Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to suddenly fire his former top military aide.

Carter unexpectedly removed Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Lewis from his post last November for unspecified “misconduct” and ordered the Defense Department inspector general to investigate. The announcement came as a shock to many at the Pentagon, in part because three-star generals are rarely cashiered or disciplined, but mostly because Lewis was Carter’s handpicked selection for the prestigious position and had worked for him in other jobs.

On Thursday, the inspector general’s office finally released the findings of its investigation. Lewis, it said, had misused his government credit card while on an official overseas trip with Carter, made a false statement about the expenses, drank too much in public, and engaged in “improper interactions with females” by drinking and socializing too closely with subordinates.

The investigation into Lewis follows other recent scandals involving U.S. senior military officers, including an admiral indicted in an epic corruption case, an Army general court-martialed for illicit sexual behavior in two war zones, and an Air Force nuclear commander who went on a multi-day drunken bender during an official visit to Moscow.

The inspector general’s report suggests that investigators originally suspected the general of consorting with prostitutes and strippers while accompanying Carter on official visits to Rome and Seoul last year. Investigators accused Lewis of visiting a red-light district in Seoul known as “Hooker Hill” and of patronizing the “Cica Cica Boom” club in Rome, which they said advertised lap dances and a “sexy show.”

The report found that Lewis tried to use his personal debit card o pay for $1,755 in expenses at the club in Rome. But when it was rejected, he had to return to his hotel room — down the hall from where Carter was staying — along with a female employee from the club so he could retrieve his government credit card to settle the bill.

In the end, however, investigators found no clear evidence that he had hired prostitutes or strippers. In a written rebuttal presented to the inspector general in August, Lewis said he had an innocent explanation for both episodes and criticized investigators for jumping to conclusions.

In South Korea, he said, he never went to Hooker Hill. While investigators said he used his government credit card to pay for $1,020 in expenses at two nightclubs known as “Candy Bars,” Lewis said charges were fraudulent and that the signature on the receipts were not his.

In Rome, he acknowledged visiting a dance club, but that it wasn’t “Cica Cica Boom,” but rather “a high-end establishment with a respectable clientele.” He admitted using his government credit card to pay his bill but said he immediately repaid the charges when he returned to Washington.

In his rebuttal, Lewis accused investigators and witnesses of taking “statements and situations out of context to paint me in the worse light possible.” He added: “It is clear that this investigation’s primary purpose is to validate a publicized decision” made by Carter to fire him, “whether the evidence supports the findings or not.”

The inspector general’s office has given its report to the Army, where senior leaders will weigh the findings and decide whether or not to discipline Lewis. Regardless, his military career is likely over. After he was removed from the job as Carter’s senior military assistant, he was reassigned to the Army and reduced in rank as a two-star general.

In a statement Thursday, Carter said he had been briefed about the results of the investigation but would withhold further comment until the Army reviews the case.

“As I said when I first learned about allegations of misconduct against Maj. Gen. Lewis and removed him as my senior military assistant, I expect the highest possible standards of conduct from the men and women in this department particularly from those serving in the most senior positions,” Carter said. “There is no exception.”

Investigators concluded that Lewis, who is married, also acted inappropriately with female colleagues on multiple occasions, including on an overseas trip with Carter shortly before he was fired.

On a business trip with Carter to Hawaii in November 2015, for example, witnesses told investigators that Lewis spent time alone with a female enlisted soldier, including in his hotel room and on a walk on the beach. The enlisted soldier told investigators that Lewis backed her against a wall in his room and that she believed he wanted to kiss her, so she left.

According to the report, Lewis acknowledged that he consumed 11 alcoholic drinks over seven hours that night and that he had spent time with the soldier. But he denied acting improperly and said they did not have any physical contact.

A few days earlier, during a visit by Carter and his delegation to Malaysia, witnesses told investigators that Lewis had cozied up to a female civilian subordinate at the hotel’s executive lounge, where they touched arms and shared a cigar. Witnesses described the encounter as “extremely intimate” and that it “did not seem innocent.”

On a trip three months earlier to Palo Alto, Calif., another female enlisted soldier told investigators that Lewis had called her to his hotel room to discuss a work matter, but when she arrived with a stack of briefing papers, he was only wearing gym shorts.

In his written rebuttal, Lewis said investigators’ description of the Malaysia incident “paints an inaccurate and unfair picture” and denied any impropriety. He noted that there were more than 20 other people in the executive lounge at the time, including several reporters whom he was briefing about the day’s events.

In a statement released by his attorney Thursday, Lewis said that during his 33-year Army career, “I have always taken full responsibility and been accountable for my actions, and I do so today as well. I acknowledge that I made some of the mistakes identified in this report. Others, I strongly contest.”