Secret Service agent sent home after allegedly assaulting woman in Jerusalem
Service says there was ‘a physical encounter,’ agent briefly detained and questioned by police; woman claims she told him he was drunk and behaving badly, alleged assault followed
A member of the US Secret Service was sent home earlier this week after he was detained by police over an altercation with a woman at a Jerusalem leisure venue.
The woman told police the US Secret Service Counter Assault Team member assaulted her when she told him he was drunk and behaving inappropriately outside a bar in the Mahane Yehuda Market, according to Hebrew media reports.
The agent was out drinking at a bar with a colleague and their behavior became rowdy, the Ynet news site reported. When the woman commented to the agent, he pushed or hit her, according to the report. She then alerted police, alleging the agent had assaulted her.
After being briefly detained by police and questioned, the agent was released without charges and sent back to the US on Monday, the Secret Service said in a statement Wednesday.
It said the agency employee was “allegedly involved in a physical encounter.”
“In accordance with agency protocol, his access to Secret Service systems and facilities was suspended pending further investigation,” the statement said.
In May, as Biden was beginning his first tour of Asia as president, two secret service agents were sent home from South Korea after a clash with a local taxi driver and two Korean nationals.
Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a four-day trip to the region that will include a stop in Saudi Arabia.
A large contingent of US secret service and security personnel arrived in the country ahead of his visit.
