not-so-secret service

Name of the Secret Service’s Infamously Cheap Agent Revealed

A general view of the Hotel Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia on April 15, 2012. US secret service agents who have been accused of misconduct amid a sex scandal had reportedly stayed at the Hotel Caribe before being set back to the US.
Hotel where Suarez confronted Huntington: “I tell him, ‘Baby, my cash money.’” Photo: MAndel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

The federal agent who single-handedly sparked “the biggest scandal in Secret Service history” by being stingy with a Colombian escort was outed yesterday by CNN as 41-year-old Arthur Huntington, a father of two from Severna Park, Maryland, a suburb about an hour from Washington, D.C. His refusal to pay 24-year-old Dania Suarez’s $800 or so fee — reportedly, he was only willing to cough up $30 — is what led to a confrontation with police and several other prostitutes in the Cartagena hotel and, eventually, to our nation’s current obsession with the after-hours activities of the Secret Service. So far, at least nine agents have been culled as a result, including Huntington, although it remains unclear if he was sacked or resigned.

What else do we know about Arthur Huntington? Well, obviously, his wife runs a neighborhood Bible study and their two kids are home-schooled. A woman who knows the family told CNN: “I know him and his character. I would question the allegations.” Their Maryland home has since been put up for sale.

In the meantime, the Secret Service is doing its very best to put this whole debacle behind it by publishing a new set of travel rules yesterday. Top of the list, unsurprisingly: Agents are no longer allowed to host any foreigners (other than cleaning staff and law enforcement officers) in their hotel rooms and must avoid “non-reputable establishments.” (Another recently revealed incident last year in El Salvador involved agents at a strip club.) Drinking can now only happen in “moderate amounts,” and is not allowed at all starting ten hours prior to going on duty. The old rule was four hours, which does not exactly seem like sufficient time to sober up enough to guard the president, but these guys obviously know what they’re doing. 

Secret Service Agent at Center of Scandal IDed