Fired Secret Service Agents: This Happens All the Time

Some claim punished unfairly, may fight back
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 25, 2012 12:01 PM CDT
Fired Secret Service Agents: This Happens All the Time
n this April 19, 2012, file photo, people walk past Hotel El Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia.   (AP Photo/Pedro Mendoza, File)

Several agents who were pressured into resigning in the Secret Service prostitution scandal are contemplating fighting for their jobs—and naming names to do it, sources close to them tell the Washington Post. The agents say they're being unfairly punished, because managers have tolerated similar dalliances in the past. "Of course it has happened before," said one agent not involved in the scandal. "It only really blew up in this case because the [US embassy] was alerted."

Investigators have also concluded that at least two of the agents implicated had encounters with women who weren't actually prostitutes, sources tell the New York Times. Another didn't realize the woman he'd taken to his room was a prostitute, and told her to leave when she asked for money. What's more, it's not clear that sleeping with prostitutes is against agency rules; misconduct standards are "kind of vague" for unmarried personnel, one official said. (More Secret Service stories.)

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