Two Secret Service agents fired from Obama detail after misconduct probe
Allegations of agent trying to force his way into women's room and sexually suggestive e-mails
A call from a Washington hotel reporting that a US Secret Service agent was trying to force his way into a woman's room set in motion an internal investigation that has sent tremors through an agency still trying to restore its elite reputation.
The incident in May led to the Secret Service supervisor, Ignacio Zamora, being removed from President Barack Obama's security detail and demoted after being accused of leaving a bullet in the woman's room, senior federal law-enforcement officials said on Wednesday.
In a follow-up investigation, agency officials also found that Zamora and another supervisor, Timothy Barraclough, sent sexually suggestive e-mails to a female subordinate, according to those with knowledge of the case.
Officials have also moved Barraclough off the president's detail to a separate part of the division.
The investigation came a year after the agency was hit by a prostitution scandal, prompting vows from senior officials to curb a male-dominated culture of hard partying and other excesses. Details about the episode at Washington's Hay-Adams Hotel and related findings were provided by four people who have been briefed on the case, including two who have viewed summaries of the internal Secret Service review.
An attorney for Zamora and Barraclough declined to comment on the allegations or the Secret Service's internal inquiry.