BRUSSELS -- Three Secret Service agents prepping for President Obama’s
trip to the Netherlands were sent home for “disciplinary reasons,” a
service spokesman said Wednesday, in another embarrassing incident for
the elite agency charged with protecting the president.
Secret Service spokesman
Brian Leary confirmed that the agents were sent back to the U.S.,
although he would not comment on when the offense occurred or whether
the agents were put on administrative leave.
A Secret Service source familiar with the matter said the incident
occurred before the president arrived in Amsterdam on Monday. The agents
were not supervisors, according to the source, who would not be named
discussing the matter.
The incident is another
headache for an agency that has come under criticism since several
agents were caught visiting prostitutes ahead of a presidential trip to
Cartagena, Colombia, two years ago. The service adopted stricter rules
for agents’ behavior after the incident, including barring agents from
drinking 10 hours before duty.
It’s not clear precisely what rule the agents violated on this trip,
but a night of excessive drinking on the part of at least one agent
appears to be the cause. The Washington Post reported that an agent was
found passed out in a hotel hallway Sunday morning.
Obama landed in Amsterdam on Monday morning to attend a summit on
nuclear security, the first stop of a six-day trip through Europe and to
Saudi Arabia. Scores of Secret Service agents arrived several days in
advance of the president to scout and secure locations and chart the
president’s movements.
