Secret Service agent kills self amid affair probe
One of the top Secret Service Agents assigned to President Obama's protective detail has apparently taken his own life. Law enforcement sources tell CBS News that Rafael Prieto, an Assistant Special Agent in-Charge in the President's Protective Detail, was found in a car inside a garage at an apartment complex in Northwest Washington D.C. on Saturday.
Prieto was discovered by Secret Service agents after they were not able to reach him by phone. The death is being investigated by the Washington Metropolitan Police Department. The Washington D.C. Medical Examiner said the cause of death was still being determined, but a law enforcement source said it appeared to be carbon monoxide poisoning from a running car in the closed garage.
Prieto had been suspended by the Secret Service, pending administrative action. Sources said Prieto's name surfaced as an outgrowth of the internal investigation into allegations that Secret Service agents patronized prostitutes in Columbia while doing advance work for the president's trip there.
Prieto was not a target of that investigation, but came to the attention of investigators when information surfaced that he had engaged in a long term relationship with a foreign citizen that he had not reported to the agency as required by regulations.
The president's protective detail is the most prestigious assignment in the Secret Service. Prieto, as an Assistant Special Agent in-Charge, or ASAC, was one of the key managers of the detail's operations. Prieto had been with the US Secret Service for twenty years.
"Rafael Prieto had a distinguished twenty year career with the Secret Service that was marked by accomplishments, dedication and friendships. The Secret Service is mourning the loss of a valued colleague," the agency said in a statement released to CBS News.
A law enforcement source told CBS News Prieto was not under investigation by the Secret Services Office of Professional Responsibility but rather in the midst of an administrative process to clarify a long, ongoing relationship with a foreigner. The source said that as part of that process, Prieto's security clearance and access to Secret Service facilities had been suspended.
Since the Colombia-prostitution allegations broke, the investigation into the conduct of Secret Service agents while overseas has been the subject of intense media coverage, congressional scrutiny marked by allegations and some political jousting. It has resulted in a probe by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General. The report was given to congressional committee's last week. No public version of the findings has yet been released, but the report did address allegations that agents had repeated, unreported contacts with foreign nationals, in violation of agency regulations.
It is unknown if Prieto's situation was one of those referenced in the report. Congressional sources said that the IG's report found that in two cases subsequent background checks on foreign nationals resulted in "hits" in national security databases.
A law enforcement source told CBS News "suggestions that Rafael Prieto was under investigation for espionage or passing information to a foreign contact are not accurate".
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Massive tornado hits Okla. 63 Photos
- Children rescued from elementary school in Okla. 11 Photos
- Oklahoma tornado carves trail of destruction Play Video
- Oklahoma tornado leaves dozens dead, including many children 78 Comments
- Severe tornado tears through Oklahoma City suburb Play Video
- At least 51 dead after massive Okla. tornado 93 Comments
- Oklahoma tornado as seen by storm chasers Play Video
- Mile-wide tornado rips through Oklahoma City area
I had a terrible experience with the United States Marshals Service that I think came from their agents being blackmailed with cell phone photos of them getting lap dances. At the time they were guarding former Judge Edward Nottingham while he was going to the Diamond Cabaret, where according to AP, he was a repeat customer known to the staff. According to the 10th Circuit, Nottingham was calling prostitutes on his court issued cell phone and a prostitute complained to them that he asked her to lie to investigators about their relationship.
Nottingham was the judge assigned to my lawsuit against the City of Steamboat Springs, its ex felon city council president Kevin Bennett etc. He dismissed my case with prejudice but didn't write an opinion. He ordered me to pay $103 K in attorney fees to the other side without stating his statutory authority, without an evidentiary hearing, and with no Rule 11(c)(6) orders or findings of fraud on my part. He ordered me to pay law firms that didn't file Rule 11 motions and even two that didn't file a notice of appearance.
In order to stop me from pursuing relief in a different court, Nottingham ordered the USMS to imprison me with no criminal charge and no bail hearing. Last summer the FBI sent me a letter saying that the USMS entered non existent criminal charges into the NCIC and the USMS Warrant Information Network WIN which is the gateway to the NCIC. I found that the Prisoner Tracking System records for Western Wisconsin show the same nonexistent criminal charge listed as an offense.
So what I think happened is that my third party defendants wanted to avoid a trial on the merits or any sort of exploration of my claims so they bribed Nottingham (my opinion but supported by Nottingham's financial statements showing he couldn't afford frequent prostitution services and the public records of the Denver Players brothel where lawyers credit cards were reportedly used and Nottingham was a customer). I think Nottingham's USMS guards had their pictures taken with cell phones when they were getting lap dances at the Diamond Cabaret so they were blackmailed and that is why they entered the non existent criminal charges against me into the USMS computer systems. I can prove that I wasn't criminally charged because the DOJ criminal division sent a FOIPA response saying they have no record of me, neither does the US Attorney's office in Colorado and Western Wisconsin the districts in which the USMS detained me.
I know this sounds weird. I don't have a criminal record. I was not allowed a bail hearing which supposedly everyone gets whether criminally charged or not if DOJ holds them for 5 days or more. See the Bail Reform Act of 1984, 18 USC 3142.
I filed a USMS internal investigations complaint stating these basic facts and they refuse to give me a copy of the report. If anyone wants my signature to attempt to get it, let me know. I am really angry about this.
kaysieverding@aol.com, 617 894 5274.
It is the Mexican Mafia, stupid.
Drugs baby !!!
Like George Clinton said, "Why must I chase the cat? Nothin' but the dog in me! Woof!"
If truth be told, every US embassy in the world is staffed chock full with wh0remongers as well as drug dealers, alcoholics, pedophiles, and just about every other perversion their money can buy, and/or keep silent. Some of these little fiefdoms predate even the Reagan administration.
The State Dept. from which the president's security derives it's authority, will lie with impunity, refusing to pay for products and/or services they order, then create fake bills to take the money anyway from their budget, then pocket it themselves.
In my years of doing business in foreign lands, I have seen enough with my own eyes to have made me extremely wary of ever again working with the US State Dept. entity, no matter what country I am in.
It is long past time a full investigation of all State Dept. activities be undertaken and the results made public.