Rafael Prieto, 47, was a married father who had confessed to cheating with a woman from Mexico for nearly six years, a secret relationship that prompted an investigation for allegedly violating agency rules that require disclosure of relationships with foreign nationals.
Susan Walsh/AP
Members of the U.S. Secret Service look on as President Obama meets with supporters. News reports confirm Rafael Prieto (not pictured), once a member of Obama’s security detail, has committed suicide.
One of President Obama’s top Secret Service agents has died in an apparent suicide.
Rafael Prieto, 47, was a married father who had confessed to cheating with a Mexican woman for nearly six years, a secret under investigation for allegedly violating agency rules that require disclosure of relationships with foreign nationals.
A member of the Secret Service for more than two decades assigned to the agency’s most prestigious post as the President’s protective detail, Prieto was found inside a car parked in a Northwest Washington, D.C. apartment complex garage last week, dead of what authorities believe to be carbon monoxide poisoning.
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His affair came to light in the wake of a separate incident that rocked the Secret Service this spring, when over a dozen personnel — supposed to be preparing for Obama’s visit to Cartagena, Colombia — were implicated in a prostitution scandal that went public when one agency employee refused to pay a prostitute for her services and started arguing with her in a hotel hallway.
An employee who worried the Secret Service was not uniformly enforcing its rules after that incident revealed Prieto’s relationship, which was not connected to the prostitution scandal, The Associated Press reported.
As a part of the agency’s investigation into Prieto’s relationship, his access to Secret Service facilities and his security clearance had been suspended, a law enforcement source told CBS News.
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“Rafael Prieto had a distinguished 20-year career with the Secret Service that was marked by accomplishment, dedication and friendships,” agency spokesman Edwin Donovan said. “The Secret Service is mourning the loss of a valued colleague.”
The Washington Metropolitan Police Department is currently investigating Prieto’s death.
