Secret Service Manager Placed On Leave Over Allegations Of Assaulting Female Agent

A senior U.S. Secret Service agent has been placed on leave, and had his security clearance revoked, following allegations that he assaulted a female agent in a sexual manner at the organization's headquarters last month.

The agent, Xavier Morales, is a senior supervisor in the agency's security clearance division. The allegations against him, first reported by the Washington Post, allege that he told the unnamed female agent that he was in love with her, and wanted to have sex with her at a party at a Washington D.C. bar on March 31.

He is subsequently alleged to have tried to kiss her, and then grabbed her arms when she resisted, while at the organization's headquarters later that evening, according to people familiar with the investigation, cited by the Post.

Morales is a manager in the security clearance division, which determines when agents should lose their jobs, NBC Washington reported, and his wife is a special agent recently promoted to deputy assistant director over government and public affairs.

Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy reported the incident to the Office of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General, which is investigating the matter. In addition, Washington D.C. police's sex crimes unit is also looking into it.

The incident is the latest in a string of scandals that have rocked the Secret Service. Most recently, two senior agents were alleged to have driven a vehicle through the site of an active bomb threat investigation near the White House. The agents in question had also come from a party in a nearby bar, prompting much speculation that they were drunk when they drove to the scene.

In addition, there have been incidents such as those involving a man who jumped the White House fence and managed to gain access to the executive wing; and agents being sent home from an international summit of world leaders in Colombia, after being found with prostitutes in their hotel rooms.