Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Accusations against envoy roil US Embassy in London
LONDON — Allegations that President Donald Trump’s envoy to Britain made inappropriate remarks about women and minorities and may have violated federal ethics rules are roiling the U.S. Embassy in London.
Current and former U.S. officials say the charges against Robert “Woody” Johnson surfaced during a routine inspection of operations at the embassy and are to be addressed in a report by the State Department’s inspector general.
Officials say Johnson is accused of making insensitive remarks that contravene department personnel guidelines. But, perhaps more seriously, Johnson’s former deputy has alleged the ambassador tried to intervene with British government officials at the president’s request to steer the British Open golf tournament to Trump’s Turnberry resort in Scotland.
British officials say Johnson made no requests about sporting events during a meeting he had with the former secretary of state for Scotland David Mundell in early 2018, the timeframe in which the subject is alleged to have been raised, and the golf tournament was not awarded to Turnberry.
“No request was made regarding the British Open or any other sporting event,“the British government said in a statement, which did not address whether the subject came up at all with Mundell then or in any other conversations Johnson may have had with British officials.
Trump denied ever asking Johnson to make the case for Turnberry.
But Lewis Lukens, a well-respected former twotime U.S. ambassador and retired career foreign service officer who was the No. 2 at the London embassy until Johnson ousted him in January 2019, said he had alerted Johnson and State Department officials in Washington to his concerns about ethics violations over the British Open intervention.
Now a London-based consultant, Lukens told The Associated Press he warned Johnson that intervening on Trump’s behalf over the venue would run afoul of federal ethics rules. But, he said, Johnson had done it anyway with no apparent pushback from the department.
“He definitely raised it with the government,” Lukens said, citing his conversations with Johnson, colleagues and British officials. “I reported the conversation to Washington, but I don’t believe anyone there talked to him about it.”
Lukens, whom Johnson dismissed after he made speeches in which he praised the Obama administration, attributed a British government denial of the request to London’s unease over picking a fight with the Trump administration during a particularly sensitive time in negotiation over a post-Brexit free trade agreement with the United States. Lukens also dismissed Trump’s denial of having raised the matter with Johnson as untrue.
Two current U.S. officials said they had witnessed or were aware of behavior by Johnson that colleagues had found to be bullying or demeaning.
One former embassy employee said Johnson’s questionable behavior and comments toward and about women and minorities were not isolated and were witnessed by numerous staffers on a weekly, if not daily, basis. That former employee and the other officials were not authorized to discuss the ongoing inspector general report and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The current and former officials said Johnson had questioned the need for events marking Black History Month, which is traditionally commemorated by U.S. diplomatic missions abroad, had hosted embassy events at a private men-only London club against the advice of embassy colleagues and made disparaging remarks about women’s appearances.
On Wednesday, Johnson, a Trump campaign contributor and owner of the New York Jets football team, took to Twitter to defend his reputation.
“I have followed the ethical rules and requirements of my office at all times,” he tweeted. “These false claims of insensitive remarks about race and gender are totally inconsistent with my longstanding record and values.”