3 Secret Service agents out amid Colombia prostitution scandal

Three members of the U.S. Secret Service will leave the agency amid an alleged prostitution scandal in Colombia, the agency said on Wednesday. One of them is a supervisory employee, who was given permission to retire, another employee has resigned, and the third agent, another supervisory employee, has been pushed out, with the agency proposing he be removed. According to a U.S. official, the agent plans to fight his ouster. The other eight members allegedly involved in the prostitution probe are on administrative leave with their security clearances suspended.

The agents are accused of bringing prostitutes to a hotel in Colombia, where prostitution is legal in some areas, ahead of last week’s visit by President Barack Obama, who was there to attend the Summit of the Americas. The creation of a review board is underway to determine whether the alleged scandal is an isolated incident or emblematic of a broader agency culture, according to a source. U.S. Representative Peter King, R-New York, and the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said, “The only way they will prevent this from happening again in the future is to find out if this is one particular case or if it’s a pattern.” This is the biggest scandal the Secret Service agency has been involved in.