A Secret Service employee who was the driver for former first lady Michelle Obama was charged with criminal harassment and witness intimidation for allegedly using his position to coerce sex and submission from a woman he briefly dated.
According to a police report viewed by the Vineyard Gazette of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, 53-year-old Douglas Vines “is a driver for the Obama family, and, according to [the woman], used that position to intimidate [her], while attempting to get her to come back out and have sex with him.”
In a separate police report, the woman also accused Vines of sexually assaulting her during a drunken rampage, according to the Gazette’s report Oct. 11.
“She thought she might have been raped because she … told him to stop, but he didn’t,” the report said.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency has since placed Vines on administrative leave and revoked his security clearance, CBS News reported Thursday.
“The United States Secret Service is aware of the allegations made against an Investigative Protection Officer,” he said. “We have extraordinarily high ethical standards and the allegations are very concerning.”
Guglielmi added that Vines’ suspension “means he will be removed from President Obama’s detail until the criminal component and our personnel investigation is concluded.”
The charges stem from an incident on Sept. 27, when a tearful woman burst into the Oak Bluffs police station on Martha’s Vineyard and told officers that Vines “had used his status as a Secret Service employee to intimidate, harass and threaten her with deportation if she did not comply with his demands, including sex,” according to the Gazette.
Oak Bluffs is on the northern end of Martha’s Vineyard, the wealthy enclave where former President Barack Obama and his wife own a lavish $12 million estate.
Should the Secret Service fire Douglas Vines?
Yes: 94% (29 Votes)
No: 6% (2 Votes)
The victim — who said she had a two- to three-month relationship with Vines — told police he had secretly recorded her discussing her status as an illegal alien and threatened to have her deported if she didn’t succumb to his demands, including sex.
The woman also said Vines had taken nude photos of her without her knowledge and blackmailed her with them by warning that she was “messing with the wrong person.”
This repulsive remark is reminiscent of when Paul Pelosi — the drunken-driving husband of Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — declared “I am a high-profile person” while trying to intimidate police after he crashed his Porsche in May.
‘I AM A HIGH-PROFILE PERSON’: Nancy Pelosi’s husband hands officers a police privilege card after crashing pricy Porsche, but cops could smell the booze – here’s what went down. https://t.co/UGKtogxTZ3 pic.twitter.com/SrzGC8BoCk
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 24, 2022
On Oct. 6, Vines pleaded not guilty to the charges of criminal harassment and witness intimidation. If convicted, he could face serious jail time.
His next court appearance is a pretrial hearing scheduled for Dec. 19.
Like the FBI, the CIA and the Department of Justice, the Secret Service is another once-venerated American institution that seems to have plunged into decay following years of politicization and corruption.
As has been spotlighted during the past two years, these agencies become little more than left-wing puppets doing the bidding of their liberal overlords. What a pathetic reflection on the United States and a tragic state of affairs for the rest of the world.
