The U.S. Secret Service has confirmed that it is investigating allegations of misconduct against one of its agents in response to an inquiry about a report claiming that the special agent in question groped a female staff member of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign after getting drunk.
A Secret Service spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that one of its agents has been suspended amid a misconduct probe, after being asked for comment on allegations made in a Real Clear Politics report claiming that the heavily inebriated agent had forced himself onto a female Harris campaign staffer at her hotel room, allegedly groping her in front of witnesses.
“The U.S. Secret Service Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating a misconduct allegation involving an employee,” the spokesperson said in response to the inquiry. “The Secret Service holds its personnel to the highest standards. The employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.”
The spokesperson did not confirm the details of the allegations, which claim that the special agent in question and several Harris campaign staff members dined and drank alcohol at a restaurant in an undisclosed location in Wisconsin last week, with the group going back to the female staffer’s hotel room afterward. The report alleged that the agent in question was so drunk that his co-workers kicked him out of their hotel room and he later passed out in the hallway.
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment and more details on the matter.
The Secret Service has been under heightened scrutiny since the attempted assassination against former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania, leading to questions about the agency’s ability to protect high-profile officials effectively. An interim House report on the Secret Service’s actions during the July 13 rally in Butler found that planning failures and unclear roles among Secret Service personnel contributed to inadequate security coverage.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said recently that some agents who were involved in securing the July 13 rally would face discipline by the agency’s internal office of integrity in line with its “table of penalties,” Rowe told reporters at a Sept. 20 press conference in Washington.
