Another alleged Secret Service sex scandal investigated

A Secret Service agent stands near then presidential candidate Barack Obama, background, at a rally in this file photo. Jae C. Hong/AP Photo

A story has surfaced today that raises questions about another alleged sexcapade by U.S. Secret Service agents.

KIRO investigative reporter Chris Halsne is reporting that last year in El Salvador, an advance team of agents prepping for President Barack Obama’s trip picked up a group of women at a strip club and brought them back to their hotel. Halsne, just returned from El Salvador and discussed his KIRO report today on “CBS This Morning.”

Click here to see the report

Halsne’s story quotes a source who says he witnessed the majority of the men drink heavily (“wasted,” “heavily intoxicated”) at the strip club. The source is said to be a U.S. government subcontractor who worked extensively with the Secret Service advance team (snipers, K-9 and explosives sweeps) in San Salvador prior to President Obama’s trip there in March of 2011.

The source says most of the Secret Service “advance-team” members also paid extra for access to the VIP section of the club where they were provided a number of sexual favors in return for their cash. Although our source says he told the agents it was a “really bad idea” to take the strippers back to their hotel rooms, several agents bragged that they “did this all the time” and “not to worry about it.”

According to KIRO-TV, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked about the KIRO News report of Secret Service misconduct in El Salvador, and said this at a briefing today: “I don’t have anything more for you on that. I would refer to you, as it related to the report you just mentioned, to the Secret Service. I simply don’t have anything more for you on that from here.”

Carney reiterated that the president has been briefed by Director Sullivan about Colombia, and that investigation is ongoing.

According to the Washington Post, the KIRO disclosure came hours after the Homeland Security secretary assured skeptical senators that a separate prostitution scandal in Colombia appeared to be an isolated incident.

More details in Halsne’s KIRO investigative report will be revealed later today when the Seattle TV station broadcasts more of the reporter’s investigation.

About Bernard McCoy

My views are my own and not a reflection of my employer. I'm an associate professor of Journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I've also been a working journalist for the past 29 years. I have covered news stories in war zones, reported on human and natural disasters, presidential conventions, a presidential inauguration and the September 11th, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. My career experiences include work as an award-winning documentary producer, television news reporter, photographer, producer, and anchor. I worked at WIBW-TV, Topeka, KS., KCTV, Kansas City, MO, WKBD-TV, Detroit, MI., WILX-TV, Lansing, MI. and WBNS-TV, Columbus, OH. I have also worked as a contributing reporter for The Columbus Dispatch, Associated Press, CBS, CNN, the Ohio News Network and lecture at the Kosovo Institute of Journalism and Communications. I have a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in telecommunications management from Michigan State University.

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