The Secret Service scandal is spreading. Now there are reports that accuse agents of misconduct in 17 countries.
The Washington Post is reporting on Friday that Secret Service agents are accused of sexual misconduct and other inappropriate behavior in up to 17 countries.
The top Republican on the Homeland Security Senate Subcommittee, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, told the Post that information provided by whistleblowers directly contradicts the claims that the agency does not allow such behavior.
However, Johnson did not provide further details on the allegations.
The newspaper reports that two individuals briefed on the transgressions said the complaints include supervisors and agents hiring prostitutes and visiting brothels on official trips overseas, which is strictly prohibited by the Secret Service.
In April of 2012, a scandal broke alleging that agents were spotted drinking and visiting prostitutes during a Presidential trip to Colombia.
Secret Service leadership has assured lawmakers that the agency doesn’t tolerate sexual or any kind of other misconduct within its ranks.
Agents are often assigned to protect the President and other important public officials for weeks at a time and they are usually part of a team of people charged with that task.
The report in the Post also claims agents engaged in one-night-stands, extra-marital affairs, and long term romantic relationships with foreign nationals.
These accusations come on the heels of the incident in which two members of President Barack Obama’s security detail were removed from their job after allegedly sending sexually explicit emails.
The agents in question, who are senior supervisors at the agency, Ignacio Zamora, Jr. and Timothy Barraclough, were found to have sent sexually inappropriate emails to a female subordinate.
Zamora Jr. led an internal probe into a scandal last year, in which more than a dozen Secret Service agents drank with prostitutes ahead of a presidential visit for an international summit in the city of Cartagena, Colombia.
In this latest scandal, the Secret Service discovered Zamora’s e-mails to the subordinate after he tried to remove a bullet that he had left behind in a woman’s room at the Hay-Adams hotel near the White House, the Post said.
On Friday, the paper reported that one the many alleged incidents took place during a visit to Thailand in 2009, according to whistleblower accounts.
At the time, dozens of agents were waiting on a military plane to travel to South Korea, but a supervisor stayed behind to find a missing agent.
The Secret Service agent was reportedly found drunk at a Thai brothel and had to be flown on a separate commercial flight at additional cost to taxpayers.