New reports revealed that three Secret Service agents tasked with protecting President Barack Obama in the Netherlands have been sent home for “disciplinary reasons”.
According to the Washington Post, one of the agents was found drunk and passed out in the hallway of an Amsterdam hotel.
A Secret Service spokesman declined to give details but said the three had been put on administrative leave pending an investigation.
The service has been trying to rebuild its reputation after previous scandals.
In 2013 two agents were removed from Barack Obama’s security detail amid allegations of harassment and misconduct.
And in 2012 several agents were dismissed following allegations that they hired prostitutes while in Cartagena, Colombia.
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the latest incident happened before President Barack Obama’s arrival in the Netherlands on Monday for a nuclear security summit.
Ed Donovan said the three had been sent home for “disciplinary reasons” but declined to elaborate.
He added that the president’s security had not been compromised in any way.
The Washington Post reported that all three were on the Counter Assault Team – which protects the president – and that one agent was a team leader.
Citing unnamed sources familiar with the incident, the newspaper said that one agent was found drunk and unconscious by hotel staff, who reported it to the US embassy.
It is believed that the other two agents were deemed complicit because they did not intervene.
Barack Obama visited the Netherlands on the first leg of a weeklong, four-country trip. He departed for Brussels on Tuesday night.