Deputy Secretary of State Resigns in Sex Scandal

By Scott Horton

Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias, the Bush Administrations senior official responsible for foreign assistance programs, tendered his resignation on Friday afternoon just as it was revealed that he had been named in a Washington prostitution ring investigation. Brian Ross and Justin Rood of ABC News report:

Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias submitted his resignation Friday, one day after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington, D.C. escort service whose owner has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a prostitution operation.

Tobias, 65, director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), had previously served as the ambassador for the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief.

. . .

As the Bush Administration's so-called "AIDS czar," Tobias was criticized for emphasizing faithfulness and abstinence over condom use to prevent the spread of AIDS.

Tobias is married. He insists, like Rev. Haggard, that he got massages but no sex from the escort service. He stated that he had switched to the services of some Central Americans at a later date.