How did a once-respected agency fall so far and so fast? Hmmmm…
A Secret Service agent can’t even send an indecent text message to a prospective date these days without his actions going public. Our colleague Carol Leonnig, the authority on all things Secret Service, confirmed a National Enquirer report Wednesday that a junior agent met a young woman while on detail at a Michelle Obama-attended event. He approached her and, whilst protecting the first lady, got her phone number.
His meet-cute (if this was a romantic comedy) with the young woman at the May 20 event ended with him later sending her sexual images and suggestive texts. His possible distraction at the event and the subsequent messaging has put the junior agent under the scrutiny of federal investigators.
The Secret Service learned about the communication after the National Enquirer contacted the agency.
Love that last bit. The Service, celebrated in such films as In the Line of Fire, has now been reduced to fodder for a supermarket tabloid. And the Washington Post writer, Colby Itkowitz, thinks it’s all a big hoot.
The first lady was speaking at an event to honor military caregivers with former Republican senator Elizabeth Dole, a federal official told Leonnig. The agent, who newly joined the Washington Field Office, was posted on the outer perimeter of the event when he spotted the woman, a private events planner.
The agent used his personal phone to text with the woman and the communications were all made while he was off duty more than eight hours after Michelle Obama finished speaking and left the event, Leonnig was told. A lesson in this seems to be don’t mix business with pleasure. Especially when your business is protecting the first lady.
Maybe a better lesson would be an even older one: never mix business with pleasure.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member