A member of the US Secret Service has returned to the United States after allegedly assaulting a woman outside a bar and being detained by Israeli national police in Jerusalem.
"Late Monday, the United States Secret Service was informed that an agency employee working in Israel was allegedly involved in a physical encounter. The employee was briefly detained and questioned by Israeli police, who released him without charges. The employee has returned to the United States," the Secret Service said in a statement.
"In accordance with agency protocol, his access to Secret Service systems and facilities was suspended pending further investigation."
Secret Service officials didn’t elaborate on the incident, but told The New York Times that sexual assault was not involved.
According to Hebrew-language media reports, the agent was behaving “innappropriately” while drinking outside a bar in the Mahane Yehuda Market.
The woman made a comment about the agent’s behaviour, and he pushed or hit her in response, Ynet reports.
President Biden arrived in Jerusalem on Wednesday as part of a larger Middle East tour that includes a later stop in Saudi Arabia.
He’s expected to visit the country’s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, meet with prime minister Yair Lapid, attend the Maccabiah games, and tour the city of Bethlehem.
The Secret Service, which is responsible in part for the president’s security, has had a number of incidents in recent years involving excessive behaviour from agents sent overseas ahead of presidential visits.
In May, two Secret Service agents were sent home during Joe Biden’s visit to South Korea.
They allegedly got into a drunken fight with a taxi driver after a night out.
In 2012, the security service imposed new rules on overseas travel after a large group of agents were caught with prostitutes in Colombia ahead of a visit from President Obama.
In 2014, a Secret Service agent drank so much he passed out in advance of another Obama visit, this one to Amsterdam.
They’ve also had problems at home.
This April, four members of the security detail protecting the president and his family were put on leave amid an investigation into how two men posing as Department of Homeland Security agents fooled members of the service.
They allegedly lavished the Secret Service members with thousands of dollars of gifts including free apartments.
