When Secret Service agents go rogue

Agents, shown in a presidential motorcade in January 2013, are entrusted with the president's life

US Secret Service agents are responsible for keeping the president safe and traditionally have a stellar reputation. Recently, though, they have been embroiled in scandal.

A Secret Service agent reportedly got drunk and passed out in the hallway of an Amsterdam hotel before President Barack Obama arrived in the Netherlands this week.

Officials said he was sent home for "disciplinary reasons". The agent was part of the Secret Service's Counter Assault Team, according to the Washington Post.

Some agents have been disciplined while others, such as the men shown here, perform admirably

He is not the only one who has been in trouble. Here is a look at five other incidents that have marred the record of the White House's praetorian guard.

A bullet left behind

Agent Ignacio Zamora met a woman at a bar at the Hay-Adams, a hotel in Washington, in June 2013 and went to her room. She saw that he had a weapon and asked him to leave.

Later she found a bullet in the room - one that he had left behind. Authorities were told about the incident.

During their investigation they found that he had been sending sexually suggestive emails to someone who worked for the Secret Service.

He was taken off the president's security duty.

An agent argued with a prostitute - here in Cartagena another prostitute poses for a photograph

A fight over money

Agents arrived in Cartagena, Colombia, in April 2012 - shortly before Mr Obama's arrival. They went to a bar. Some of them reportedly paid $60 (£38) apiece to the owner and then brought prostitutes back to their hotel.

The next morning one of the women said that they still owed her money. They got into a loud argument at the hotel, and the police were notified.

Secret Service officials promised they would look into the incident. Agent Zamora - who later got into trouble because he left a bullet in a woman's hotel room - helped to lead the investigation of misconduct in Colombia.

Some lawmakers said that they did not think he was the right person to investigate misbehaviour among agents.

"This is like the fox guarding the hen house," said Senator Ron Johnson, who is a Republican from Wisconsin, in a statement to the BBC.

Senator Johnson said: "This type of behaviour jeopardises the security of the president of the United States and makes US government personnel susceptible to coercion and blackmail."

A spokesman for the Secret Service declined to comment.

White House party crashers

Agents let Tareq and Michaele Salahi into the White House

Three agents allowed a couple from Virginia, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, into the first state dinner hosted by Mr Obama in November 2009 - apparently without an invitation.

The Salahis became celebrities, appearing on The Real Housewives of DC. The agents were put on administrative leave.

Most agents are hard-working and professional - a few, however, have slipped

Caught in a prostitution sting

An off-duty officer driving in a vehicle with Secret Service markings was arrested in Washington when he tried to solicit a prostitute in 2008, according to USA Today. The prostitute was actually an undercover law-enforcement officer.

Officials said that the Secret Service agent faced administrative action.

Agents such as this one - protecting then-President George W Bush - have to be on high alert

Please return to owner

Two agents visited a skateboarding store in Salt Lake City, Utah, in February 2002, before the Winter Olympics. They bought nine Olympic hats, according to the New York Times, and left.

Afterwards the store owner found some papers on the counter - security details for Vice-President Dick Cheney and his family, describing where the agents would be posted during the Games.

A spokesman for the Secret Service said that the agents were careless - but that the vice-president and his family had not been in danger.