US reveals accusations against Secret Service

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL | Associated Press – 34 mins ago…
…FILE – In this April 14, 2012 file …
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government has revealed details of serious allegations against Secret Service agents and officers since 2004, including claims of involvement with prostitutes, leaking sensitive information, publishing pornography, sexual assault, illegal wiretaps, improper use of weapons and drunken behavior. It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the accusations were confirmed to be true.

The heavily censored list, which runs 229 pages, was quietly released under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act to The Associated Press and other news organizations following the Secret Service prostitution scandal that erupted in April in Colombia. It describes accusations filed against Secret Service employees with the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general.

Some of the accusations occurred as recently as last month. In many cases, the government noted that some of the claims were resolved administratively, and others were being formally investigated.

The new disclosures of so many serious accusations lend weight to concerns expressed by Congress that the prostitution scandal exposed a culture of misconduct within the Secret Service. Secret Service Direct Mark Sullivan apologized for the incident during a hearing in May but insisted that what happened in Colombia was an isolated case.

Secret Service officials did not immediately respond Friday to questions about the accusations.

The complaints included an alleged sexual assault reported in August 2011. In the heavily censored entry, an employee was accused of pushing a woman who also worked for the agency onto a bed during a work trip. The employee “got on top of (censored) attempting to have sex,” even though the woman “told (censored) ‘no’ several times.” The entry noted that supervisors described the accused as “a conscientious and dependable employee.” The incident was closed with an “administrative disposition” in February.

They also included an anonymous complaint in October 2003 that a Secret Service agent “may have been involved with a prostitution ring,” noting that two telephone numbers belonging to the agent, whose name was censored and who has since retired, turned up as part of an FBI investigation into a prostitution ring. In 2005, an employee was reported to the Washington field office for being arrested on a charge of solicitation in a park. Documents do not reveal the outcome of that case.

In 2008, an on-duty uniform division officer was arrested in a Washington prostitution sting. The officer, who was driving a marked Secret Service vehicle at the time, was placed on administrative leave, the records show. Sullivan said during the May hearing that the officer was later fired.

Some of the allegations were obviously spurious, such as a complaint in August 2010 that a Secret Service agent had performed experiments and implanted stimulators in a citizen’s brain. The list also included dozens of complaints about fraudulent emails that circulate widely on the Internet and appear to come from the Secret Service.

A dozen Secret Service officers, agents and supervisors were implicated in the Colombia scandal and eight have been forced out of the agency. At least two employees are fighting to get their jobs back.

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