Politics

Secret Service Agent Allegedly Sexually Assaulted Harris Aide

GROSS MISCONDUCT

The agency confirmed there is an ongoing misconduct investigation involving an employee Wednesday.

A photo illustration of Kamala Harris and Secret Service agents.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

A Secret Service agent allegedly sexually assaulted one of Kamala Harris’ vice presidential staffers in Wisconsin last week.

The incident occurred during a planning trip to Green Bay for a Harris campaign event that was ultimately canceled after the Vice President opted to go to Atlanta on Sept. 20, Real Clear Politics reported.

Sources told the outlet that the Secret Service officer had dined and drank after work with several staffers at a local restaurant before returning with the group to the Harris aide’s hotel room, where the agent allegedly forced himself on the female staffer and groped her. The assault was reportedly witnessed by others present.

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One insider claimed that the accused assailant was so drunk that fellow agents kicked him out of his hotel room to sleep in the hallway, where photos were taken of him.

Consuming alcohol within 10 hours of reporting for duty is strictly prohibited by the agency. The rule was enacted after several Secret Service agents solicited sex workers in Cartagena, Colombia – where prostitution is legal – while preparing for a presidential visit in 2012

Secret Service officials ordered the special agent in the Green Bay incident to return to the agency’s headquarters in Washington D.C. to meet with investigators in the Inspections Division, the department responsible for looking into disciplinary matters, on Monday.

The agency confirmed Wednesday that an employee is the subject of an ongoing misconduct investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility.

“The Secret Service holds its personnel to the highest standards. The employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation,” Nate Herring, a Secret Service spokesperson, said in a statement to the Daily Beast.

The Office of the Vice President acknowledged that they were aware of “an incident involving an agent, but said they would not be releasing additional information on the matter.

“We have zero tolerance for sexual misconduct,” Harris’ office added.

The sexual assault allegation is the latest controversy to rock the Secret Service as their approval rating plummets amid intense scrutiny from lawmakers and the public about the agency’s “failure” to prevent an assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

On Wednesday, the bipartisan Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee released a 94-page interim report into the Butler rally that detailed Secret Service mistakes ahead of and during the event that were “entirely foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day.”

Meanwhile, on Sunday, a Uniformed Division officer shot himself in the foot accidentally while outside the Israeli ambassador’s residence in Washington, D.C. Some agents said the “negligent discharge” was from a lack of gun training.

The vice president's personal security detail also came under fire after one of Harris' agents allegedly started a brawl with fellow officers earlier this year. The accused aggressor was ultimately “removed from their assignment.”