Two U.S. Secret Service agents have been removed from President Barack Obama's security detail amid allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, The Washington Post reported. They reportedly sent sexually inappropriate emails to a female colleague, while the same agent and another agent 'inadvertently left a bullet in a woman's hotel room, then demanded to be let back in," BBC News reported.
Igancio Zamora Jr, who served as senior supervisor to about two dozen agents in Obama's security detail, was off-duty when he met a woman at a hotel near the White House in May. He later joined her in her hotel room.
Zamora "who previously led former First Lady Laura Bush's protective detail, "removed the ammunition from his government-issued weapon while in the hotel room. When he left, he realized he had left behind a single bullet. When he sought to get back in the room to retrieve the bullet, the woman refused to let him in...Zamora then identified himself as a Secret Service agent to hotel security and demanded access to the room," BBC reported.
Also, sexually explicit messages were reportedly found on Zamora's government-issued mobile phone number. Timothy Barraclough, another supervisor, also reportedly sent explicit messages to the same female agent.
The Secret Service officials declined to comment further on either matter, news reports said.
This newest scandal is yet another blight on the Secret Service which has earned its perception as being a hard partying and male-dominated culture. Several agents were dismissed last year following allegations that service detail hired prostitutes while they were in Cartagena, Colombia before the president's visit to the Summit of Americas.
President Obama named Julia Pierson, the Secret Service's first female director, in March, perhaps in an effort to curb its behavior.
