Reports that a Secret Service officer tried to solicit an underage girl for sex are “disgusting,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Friday.
The allegations against 37-year-old Lee Robert Moore “are disgusting” and are ones “the administration, including the Secret Service, takes quite seriously,” Earnest said. Secret Service officials’ swift action shows “how seriously they take this matter,” he said. “But I’m unable, and unwilling, to comment much more about a personnel matter.”
Moore’s arrest on federal charges this week is another black eye for the agency charged with protecting the president, his family, cabinet officials and visiting foreign dignitaries. The agency’s run of bad publicity began in 2012 when it was revealed that more than a dozen employees working the president’s detail on a South American trip were involved in a prostitution scandal.
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After more scandals and blunders, including an incident in which an armed intruder breached the White House itself, Julia Pierson, then director of the service, was forced out. But despite new leadership and President Obama’s continued backing of new Director Joseph Clancy, fresh embarrassments such as Moore’s arrest continue.
The sting operation on Moore began in August when he began “sexting” a Delaware State Police detective that he thought was a 14-year-old girl. The investigation revealed that he engaged in sexual conversations with the “girl” while on duty at the White House.
Moore’s security clearance was suspended Nov. 6 when the agency’s internal affairs office found out about the pending charges.
On Thursday, when the charges against Moore were unsealed, the agency issued a statement saying: “The Secret Service takes allegations of potential criminal activity extremely seriously.”
The agency ordered Moore, a Maryland resident, to report to a Maryland State Police barracks on Sunday.
In the federal complaint, a Homeland Security special agent wrote that Moore had previously engaged 14-year-old girls online in a sexual manner.
Moore, who reportedly is married with two children, has posted bail but remains in federal custody.
