DHS watchdog finds Secret Service agent who ‘choke slammed’ photographer at Trump rally acted ‘reasonable’

Published September 11, 2020 11:50am ET



An independent watchdog determined that a Secret Service agent was justified in using a “choke slam” against a photographer at a Trump campaign event in 2016.

The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, of which the Secret Service is a part, looked into the case of agent William Figueroa for the way he took down Time magazine photographer Christopher Morris during then-candidate Trump’s Feb. 29 rally at Radford University, according to Politico. Video of the incident shows Morris attempting to leave the press pen to photograph protesters when Figueroa grabbed him by the neck, lifted him off the ground, and then slammed him down, which mimics a pro-wrestling-style move called the “choke slam.”

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