The Washington Post is reporting that an internal investigation by the Secret Service has resulted in the punishment of two secret service agents. The two agents, Timothy Barraclough and Ignacio Zamora, Jr., were found to have sent sexually suggestive emails to a female subordinate, according to the Post. Zamora, who was the senior supervisor of the elite presidential security detail, was “removed” from his position and Barraclough has been reassigned, the Post reports.
The emails were found as part of a follow up investigation to another potentially embarrassing moment for the Secret Service involving agents at a Washington, DC hotel. Here’s more on that incident from the Post:
A call from the Hay-Adams Hotel this past spring reporting that a 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… Zamora was allegedly discovered attempting to reenter a woman’s room after accidentally leaving a bullet from his service weapon. The incident has not been previously reported…. According the Secret Service’s internal findings, Zamora was off duty when he met a woman at the hotel’s Off the Record bar and later joined her in her room…The review found that Zamora had removed ammunition from the chamber of his government-issued handgun during his stay in the room and then left behind a single bullet. He returned to the room when he realized his mistake. The guest refused to let him back in. Zamora identified himself to hotel security as a Secret Service agent…. The incident led to an investigation that included a routine search of Zamora’s government-issued BlackBerry, which contained sexually charged messages to the female agent, according to the people briefed on the findings.
The allegations come at a touchy time for the Secret Service. Following a prostitution scandal during a 2012 trip to Colombia, the Post points out, as part of an attempted cultural overhaul the service appointed its first female director and began in internal review, which is expected to be released soon.
