Ellen Rometsch

 ( 1936 Births ) 

Rometsch had apparently disclosed details of her illicit relations with highly placed government officials that she had met at the club, to a former FBI informant of questionable reliability. Because she had been born in East Germany and was rumored to have once worked for Walter Ulbricht, the FBI decided to investigate her. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy was informed of the planned investigation on July 3, 1963. On July 12, 1963, Rometsch was interviewed by the FBI and it was concluded that the security allegations against her were not warranted and the high-level sex contacts were unsubstantiated.

However, due to the sensation that the Profumo affair in the United Kingdom had created in the press and because the US State Department could not remove Rometsch without disclosing a specific reason to the West German authorities, it was decided that the information developed by the FBI would be transmitted via liaison to the State Department and then be made available discreetly to West German authorities. On August 14, 1963, Sgt. Rometsch was informed by his superiors of the allegations being made against his wife and that he was therefore being recalled back to West Germany in one week. Rometsch was expelled from the U.S. on August 21, 1963, "because of her behavior in Washington", behavior which according to media reports threatened to have scandalous overtones reminiscent of the Profumo affair.Reuters, U.S. 'Profumo' Scandal About to Break", Toledo Blade, October 27, 1963

The allegations involving Rometsch and her subsequent removal from the U.S., were brought to the public's attention through a front page article written by Clark R. Mollenhoff in the October 26, 1963, issue of the Des Moines Register. Mollenhoff said her circle included "several congressional figures" and "several high executive branch officials" and "moved in a crowd that included some well-known New Frontier figures", and that she led a life that "could not be financed on the pay of a non commissioned West German soldier."Clark R. Mollenhoff, quoted in United Press, "Paper Says Senate Inquiry to be in Secret", Toledo Blade, October 27, 1963 A few days later Clark Mollenhoff asked President Kennedy at a live televised press conference if he is fulfilling the requirements of his Code of Ethics. In his response Kennedy seemed to make a veiled reference to the Rometsch story Mollenhoff had just written by saying, "I have always believed that innuendoes should be justified before they are made, either by me and the Congress, or even in the press." Years later however, in 2013, Bobby Baker seemed to endorse some of the claims made by Mollenoff by claiming that he was the one who introduced Ellen Rometsch to one of President Kennedy's closest friends, Bill Thompson while they were at the Quorum Club. Thompson allegedly asked if Rometsch could accompany him for dinner at the White House and Baker arranged for Rometsch to be taken to Bill Thompson's apartment where they drove to the White House together to have dinner with the President "on many occasions".

Rometsch was also alleged to be a call girl, which she also denied, and was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine if she had been working as an East German spy. Although FBI director J. Edgar Hoover met privately with Senators Mike Mansfield and Everett Dirksen telling them there was "no evidence" that Rometsch was a spy, he then proceeded to tell them details about the senators who had been "entertained" by Quorum Club girls.

According to reports, Robert F. Kennedy desired to squelch any press reports of his brother's alleged involvement with Rometsch, which led him to seek Hoover's help in discouraging any mention of the Rometsch "allegations" in the Senate investigation of Bobby Baker, who held the post of Senate Secretary for the Majority until he resigned on October 7, 1963. According to biographer Evan Thomas, Robert Kennedy had Rometsch deported to cover up an alleged extramarital affair John F. Kennedy had with her. Rometsch denied the sexual and spying allegations. Rometsch's husband likewise denies newspaper reports that payments to a Liechtenstein account were made to the couple. Although it became public that Ellen Rometsch was suspected of espionage, John F. Kennedy's name did not appear public in this context at the time. The press release on Ellen Rometsch was published in November 1963. The FBI created a 478-page file on Rometsch with the code number 105-122316, which was only closed in 1987 and is now publicly available. According to the documents, Kennedy's successor Lyndon B. Johnson requested "a summary of the Ellen Rometsch case" in February 1964. The FBI assigned Rometsch to a group of women, the majority of whom were of German origin, "who offered their services as 'play girls' to various people inside and outside the government." Some of them are said to be prominent and to be in the public eye. According to the allegations in the file, this ring was responsible for "personal escapades, prostitution, partying, sex orgies, and so forth."

However, the East German government's subsequently revealed STASI archives seem to corroborate FBI's official conclusion that Rometsch was not in their service. Archives contain no record of her nor any members of Rometsch's family, who once lived in Saxony, in the intelligence files. Together with the findings of Western intelligence agencies, everything therefore suggests that the former West German immigrant citizen never spied for the East. According to writer Darwin Porter, The Baker-run Quorum club was itself part of honeypot-like operations in service of American intelligence agencies spying on senators and other politicians.