The US 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 behaviour. It was not clear how many of the accusations were confirmed to be true.
The heavily redacted list on 229 pages was released under the US Freedom of Information Act. It follows a scandal in April, in which Secret Service agents were alleged to have engaged prostitutes when assigned to protect the president at an international gathering in Colombia.
The list describes accusations filed against Secret Service employees with the Homeland Security Department's inspector general. In many cases, the government noted that claims were resolved administratively, while others were being formally investigated.
The disclosures lend weight to concerns expressed by Congress that the prostitution scandal exposed a culture of misconduct within the Secret Service. Secret Service director Mark Sullivan apologised 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 on Friday to questions about the accusations.
The complaints include an alleged sexual assault reported in August 2011. In the heavily redacted entry, an employee was accused of pushing a woman who also worked for the agency on to 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 include 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 soliciting in a park. Documents do not reveal the outcome of that case.
In 2008, an on-duty uniformed 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 are spurious, such as a complaint in August 2010 that a Secret Service agent performed experiments and implanted stimulators in a citizen's brain. The list also includes 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.