Two Secret Service agents have been cut from President Obama’s security detail after allegations of misconduct, the latest blow for an organization still trying to repair its reputation a year and a half after being rocked by a prostitution scandal.
According to the latest allegations, a Secret Service agent tried to force his way into a woman’s room at Washington’s swanky Hay-Adams hotel. The Washington Post reports that Ignacio Zamora Jr., a senior supervisor in charge of two dozen agents on the president’s security detail, tried to reenter the woman’s room after accidentally leaving behind a bullet from his service weapon.
When investigators followed up on the incident, they allegedly discovered that Zamora and another supervisor, Timothy Barraclough, had sent sexually-suggestive emails to a female subordinate. According to the Post, both Zamora and Barraclough have been removed from the president’s detail.
The incident comes as an inspector general’s report on the agency’s culture is expected to be released within weeks. Following the prostitution scandal, the service named Julia Pierson as its first female director. Attorneys for Zamora and Barraclough declined to comment to the Post, but Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said in a statement, “We have always maintained that the Secret Service has a professional and dedicated workforce. Periodically we have isolated incidents of misconduct, just like every organization does.”