The Secret Service sent three agents home from the Netherlands just before President Barack Obama’s arrival after one agent was found inebriated in an Amsterdam hotel, the Secret Service said Tuesday.
The three agents were benched for “disciplinary reasons,” said Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan, declining to elaborate. Donovan said the incident was prior to Obama’s arrival Monday in the country and did not compromise the president’s security in any way.
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The agents sent home from Amsterdam were placed on administrative leave, according to The Washington Post, which first reported the disciplinary action. The newspaper said all three were on the Counter Assault Team, which defends the president if he comes under attack, and that one agent was a “team leader.”
One agent was discovered highly intoxicated by staff at a hotel, who reported it to the U.S. Embassy, said a person familiar with the situation, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the alleged behavior on the record and demanded anonymity. The other two agents were deemed complicit because they didn’t intervene despite being in a position to assist the drunken agent or tamp down his behavior, the person said.
Source: AP
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3 Obama Secret Service Agents on Leave After Drinking in Amsterdam, 1 Found Passed Out
Three Secret Service agents on President Obama‘s protective detail in Amsterdam were put on administrative leave and sent back to the U.S. after they had a night out going drinking. The Washington Post reports that one of the agents was spotted passed out in a hallway after drinking.
The agents were getting buzzed before Obama arrived in Amsterdam, and a spokesman for the Secret Service confirms that they were sent home for “disciplinary reasons.” People close to the situation who spoke off the record said the agents were part of the Secret Service’s Counter Assault Team.
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