In Further Defense Of Jonathan Dach, The Yale Law Grad Dragged Into A Sex Scandal

31 Oct 2014 at 1:46 PM
Politics, Prostitution, Sex, Sex Scandals, Women's Issues
By David Lat

I recently wrote a defense of Jonathan Dach, the Yale Law School graduate and State Department lawyer who was accused of patronizing a Colombian prostitute. Dach has forcefully denied the allegations, and people who know him find the idea of him hiring a prostitute in Colombia to be inconceivable.

Not everyone was persuaded by my defense, however. In conservative quarters, my argument — or at least my “he’s kinda cute” point, made somewhat tongue in cheek — was met with significant skepticism. ... New revelations, however, make the case against Jonathan Dach look more shaky than ever — and even conservative outlets are raising questions….
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What was the whole point, then, of L’Affaire Dach? Two inside-the-Beltway sources of ours, one a Republican and one Democrat, separately suggested to us that it was designed to torpedo the attorney-general prospects of former White House Counsel [link|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Ruemmler|Kathy Ruemmler]. If the controversy over Dach, a White House volunteer at the time of his trip to Cartagena, made it look like Ruemmler couldn’t keep her own house in order or engaged in a cover-up to protect the child of a big Democratic donor (Leslie Dach), it would make it less likely for President Obama to nominate Ruemmler as AG — or, at the very least, one more thing to grill her about during confirmation hearings.

If the Dach controversy was ginned up by opponents of an Attorney General Ruemmler, well, congratulations, folks — you succedeed in getting Ruemmler to withdraw. It’s too bad, though, that you had to sacrifice a bright young lawyer’s reputation to do it.