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The Secret Service has been forced to respond to claims that an armed man approached Barack Obama outside a restaurant in Los Angeles on Saturday – and wasn’t stopped by the former president’s security detail.
The unnamed security guard, who wished to remain anonymous, told TMZ that he approached an SUV outside LA restaurant Mother Wolf at around 7:30 p.m.
He said he had been working at a bar mitzvah above the restaurant that night and learned that federal agents were outside.
Wanting to check what was going on, the man said he left the venue and saw two agents in an alleyway to his right, while a black SUV with Department of Homeland Security plates was to his left.
Assuming there was a dignitary inside the vehicle, and after snapping a photo of it, the man said he decided to approach the SUV, but was startled to see the former president using a laptop in the backseat.
Being armed at the time, the man said he feared Obama’s security detail would consider him a threat, and so quickly backed away and greeted the two men in the alleyway.
He said he learned that the two men were Secret Service agents, adding that they seemed surprised to see him.
About 30 minutes later, he said his boss asked him to hand over his credentials and license to carry a concealed weapon for the Secret Service to check.
The security guard described the alleged incident as “definitely a security lapse on their part that there was no one on the backside of SUV, nor covering the stairwell.” He claimed he could have easily tried to open the car door, saying the agents in the alleyway were “obviously embarrassed by the situation.”
Following the claims, the Secret Service denied the man’s version of events, calling it “inaccurate.”
“The Secret Service cannot provide the details on our means and methods of protection,” a Secret Service spokesperson told The Independent in an email on Thursday.
“But we can confirm that at no time were any Secret Service protectees in the vehicle while the individual was walking down the alleyway,” they added. “These claims are inaccurate.”
The statement claimed that the photo taken by the guard was “upon departure and not during the alleged incident.”
The report comes at a time when the Secret Service is facing heavy scrutiny, following two alleged assassination attempts on Donald Trump.
On September 15, suspected would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh is accused of aiming a rifle through the fence at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while Trump was golfing at the time. The suspected assassination attempt was foiled by Secret Service agents and Routh was arrested. He has since been charged with attempting to assassinate Trump.
That came two months after the Republican presidential nominee was shot in the right ear when gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. Crooks was shot and killed at the scene.
A damning new report found the Secret Service had key lapses in its security plan and did not communicate with local and state law enforcement agencies before the Butler rally.
A separate scandal has also rocked the agency this week, after an agent was accused of sexually assaulting a member of Kamala Harris’s team in a hotel room over the last week.
Having become drunk with a group of staffers, the agent allegedly forced himself on the female staffer and groped her, before he was thrown out the room by other members of the Harris campaign, according to RealClearPolitics.
“The US Secret Service Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating a misconduct allegation involving an employee,” a Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement to the outlet.
“The Secret Service holds its personnel to the highest standards. The employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.”
