2 Secret Service Employees Sent Home From Biden's Trip

They were involved in an allegedly drunken altercation with taxi driver in South Korea
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 20, 2022 12:26 PM CDT
2 Secret Service Employees Sent Home From Biden's Trip
Stock photo.   (Getty/jackethead)

It might be another case of Secret Service employees behaving badly overseas: Two have been sent back to the US ahead of President Biden's trip to Asia, reports the AP. The details of what happened were still being investigated, but ABC News reports an agent got into a heated altercation with a taxi driver in South Korea early Thursday, a day ahead of Biden's arrival. He and another employee described as a "physical security specialist" were together at the time, and both have been sent home. The media accounts, along with another at Reuters, quote sources as saying the pair had been out drinking before the altercation took place.

Things got so heated that police got involved, though it's not clear to what extent. Reuters, for example, quotes a police official in Seoul's Yongsan district who says one of the men was arrested after the disturbance outside the Grand Hyatt hotel, while the AP reports that no charges were filed after an investigation. "The Secret Service is aware of an off-duty incident involving two employees which may constitute potential policy violations," says a spokesperson for the agency, per ABC. "The individuals will be immediately returned back to their post of duty and placed on administrative leave. There was no impact to the upcoming trip." (More Secret Service stories.)

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