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Secret Service Agent on Bill Clinton’s Detail Recalled From Bulgaria After Off-Duty ‘Altercation’

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


A Secret Service agent traveling with former President Bill Clinton on a trip to Bulgaria was recalled after officials said he was involved in an off-duty “altercation.”

According to ABC News, the incident involved “hotel staff.” Clinton was scheduled to visit Bulgaria this month “for a convening of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI),” the organization announced last month.

“On May 10, a Secret Service officer assigned to support protective functions on an overseas trip to Sofia, Bulgaria was recalled to the United States by the Secret Service after an off-duty altercation with hotel staff,” a Secret Service spokesperson said, according to the news outlet.

“A second employee who witnessed this incident was also recalled. The individuals were removed prior to the arrival of the protectee, and our Office of Professional Responsibility has opened an internal investigation into the incident,” the spokesperson added.

ABC News added:

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The Secret Service made headlines this week after it was reported that an unidentified man entered national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s Washington, D.C., home in late April. The alleged incident prompted a Secret Service investigation into how it could happen with agents supposedly on guard, according to an agency spokesperson. The news came to light this week.

Regarding the incident on Clinton’s trip, the Secret Service noted that it has “extremely strict codes of conduct governing employee behavior, and should this investigation reveal any policy violations or misconduct, individuals will face disciplinary action.”

“All employees involved in this incident have been placed on administrative leave and access to Secret Service sites, facilities, and computer systems has been suspended pending the results of this investigation,” the agency said, per ABC News.

The agency made headlines again earlier this week after department officials refused to hand over emails that identified visitors to President Joe Biden’s Delaware residence.

Republicans have been demanding answers on the lack of transparency on visitor logs from Biden’s Delaware home, leading to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

“Please be advised that emails reflecting visitors to President Biden’s residences in Wilmington, Delaware, and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware are not agency records subject to the FOIA. See Doyle v. U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Sec., 959 F.3d 72 (2d Cir. 2020) (finding that emails regarding expected visitors to the sitting President’s residence were not agency records subject to the FOIA.),” the agency said in a letter to the New York Post following its FOIA request.

The Secret Service claimed last year that “no records were located” of Biden’s Delaware visitors.

“A Secret Service FOIA officer cited a federal appeals court ruling in New York regarding visitor information for former President Donald Trump’s residences, even though the ruling doesn’t bind the actions of officials in Delaware or in DC,” the New York Post reported.

Earlier this year, the Secret Service said it was “gathering” information about who visited Biden’s home in Wilmington, Del., amid a scandal involving the president’s potentially illegal possession of classified documents.

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The Washington Examiner reported at the time that the demand included information on “all individuals” who visited the residence as well as other places where Biden stashed classified documents, including a private office he used at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.

The outlet noted further:

Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson wrote to the Secret Service on Monday in a letter first obtained by the Washington Examiner and requested the visitor logs. Now, the Secret Service said it is evaluating that letter and is “currently in the process of gathering” various information, as well as “working through appropriate channels” to locate what “may be responsive to Congressional inquiries.”

“I hope the Secret Service will be transparent and cooperative as Sen. Grassley and I investigate Joe Biden’s mishandling of our nation’s top secrets,” Johnson said then.

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