Three U.S. Secret Service agents to leave over scandal

Washington.- Three Secret Service employees are to leave the agency over the sex scandal in Colombia which has tarnished the elite presidential protection agency’s image, an official statement said Wednesday.

One “supervisory” employee will retire over the allegations that agents consorted with prostitutes, another has been told he will be sacked and a third “non-supervisory” employee has resigned, said Paul Morrissey, of the service’s Office and Government and Public Affairs.

Morrissey said that the investigation into the alleged scandal was still at an early stage, and that eight other agents remained under investigation, in a process which included the use of polygraph lie detector technology.

Eleven agents and at least 10 military personnel are accused of bringing prostitutes to a hotel in the Colombian resort of Cartagena where President Barack Obama was attending a Latin American summit last weekend.