Secret Service agent accused of sexual assault of Harris campaign worker

The US Secret Service has confirmed it is investigating accusations of sexual assault against one of its agents, reportedly with the alleged victim being a female staff member of Kamala Harris’s election campaign team.

The federal agency, already under fire over operational lapses that preceded the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in July, confirmed to NBC News on Wednesday: “The employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.”

According to RealClearPolitics, the agent allegedly forced himself on to the woman and groped her in her hotel room after eating a meal and drinking alcohol with her and several other Harris campaign staffers in a restaurant in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The group was reported to be visiting the state to scout out campaign stops for the vice-president. The outlet reported that the agent’s actions toward the Harris campaign staffer “were apparently witnessed by other people present”.

Harris’s campaign office in a statement: “We have zero tolerance for sexual misconduct. Senior OVP [Office of the Vice President] officials were alerted by the USSS about an incident involving an agent and informed that USSS initiated an investigation.”

The Secret Service has been embroiled before in issues related to improper conduct, including in 2012 when 11 agents and uniformed officers were suspended following revelations that they brought back several prostitutes to the Hotel Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, while guarding Barack Obama when he was the US president.

In its statement to NBC following the report about the Harris campaign aide, the agency said it “holds its personnel to the highest standards”.