Washington DC:

A Secret Service agent, assigned to Barack Obama’s detail, was recently fired after he landed in hot water for allegedly bringing a lover to the former US President’s beachfront property in Hawaii, according to a new memoir by the law enforcement officer’s former girlfriend.

In “Undercover Heartbreak: a Memoir of Trust and Trauma,” Koryeah Dwanyen detailed a series of potential security lapses on the former agent’s part while he was trying to woo her, including a time when he sent her photos of the house and even suggested a tour of the mansion when the Obamas weren’t home, according to ABC News.

Allegations

“No one will know. If anything, I’m the one who could get in trouble,” the agent, who was given the pseudonym “Dale” in the book, allegedly told Ms Dwanyen. 

“No one will know. If anything, I’m the one who could get in trouble,” says the agent in the memoir, where he is given the pseudonym “Dale.”

As per the ABC report, the incident happened in 2022, while the agent was assigned to protect the former President. As per Ms Dwanyen’s book, the agent even tried to get her to fool around in the former first lady Michelle Obama’s bathroom.

“We should have sex in Michelle [Obama]’s bathroom, like a mile-high club,” the book, self-published on October 28, claimed he said.

As per the memoir, Ms Dwanyen was vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard in 2022 when she met ‘Dale’, who was assigned to the security detail of the Obama family. At the time, he reportedly told the woman that he was divorced and had been for nearly a decade. She later found out that the agent was still married, according to the book.

Later, during an interview with ABC, Dwanyen said, “There were major red flags — breaches of trust and of his job.” 

Acting on her concern, Ms Dwanyen said, she sent an email to the agent’s boss — whom she had met “several times” in Hawaii –outlining her concerns about “breaches of trust and of his job”. 

The secret service agent’s boss took the matter seriously and started an investigation. “They realized that not only had ‘Dale’ shared photos of the Obamas’ house, but he had also brought me there,” Ms Dwanyen wrote in the book.

It was also found that the agent had allegedly also taken photos of “pictures of Alicia Keys’ house, Steven Spielberg’s boats, Melinda Gates, Tyler Perry and Amal Clooney.” He has also shared background information on former vice president Mike Pence, who he had allegedly been assigned to during the Trump Administration, she said.

According to Ms Dwanyen, ‘Dale’ shared some “personal tidbits” with her which “he should not have” about the people he was protecting. “I knew their code names. I knew what day Orange Theory was, what day [Michelle Obama] had private tennis lessons and when her personal trainer came…Things that I should not have been privy to as a civilian,” she said.

Agent Fired

After the allegations surfaced, the Secret Service launched an internal investigation following which the agent was fired for alleged violations of fundamental regulations.

“On Nov. 6, 2022, a Secret Service agent involved in protective functions brought an individual who did not have authorized access into a protectee’s residence without permission,” Anthony Guglielmi, the agency’s chief of communications, told ABC News.

“As soon as the Secret Service became aware of the incident, the agent involved was immediately suspended and after a full investigation, terminated,” he said. 

Guglielmi stressed that the US Secret Service’s top priority is ensuring the safety and security of its protectees, “and any actions that compromise this commitment are addressed with the utmost seriousness.”

Chicago:

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump set out Friday on the final 10-week sprint to election day, with the Democrat surging after an electrifying speech accepting the Democratic Party nomination.

Less than three weeks before the presidential debate between the US vice president and the Republican ex-president — and only a month before early in-person voting begins – polls show the race for the White House is neck and neck.

The former senator and prosecutor leaves Chicago with the wind in her sails, having outraised Trump and erased the polling leads he was enjoying before she replaced President Joe Biden atop the Democratic ticket last month.

But Dan Kanninen, battleground director of the Harris campaign, cautioned at a Bloomberg event on the sidelines of the convention that the race “is not fundamentally changed” and still “very, very tight.”

“We have tremendous enthusiasm — I think momentum is on our side — but we now need to do something with it and engage the electorate effectively this fall,” he said.

Harris accepted her party’s presidential nomination on a glitzy final night in Chicago, buoyed by a galaxy of stars, that set the stage for the gruelling run-in to November 5.

Razor thin margins

The 59-year-old Californian has edged ahead by razor-thin margins in polling, reversing what had started to look like a likely Trump victory against Biden before he dramatically pulled out and endorsed Harris.

In just a month, Harris has raised a record-breaking half a billion dollars, enjoying a political honeymoon that shows little sign of ending.

Party leaders have cautioned that headwinds could still buffet the campaign, however.

These include internal protests over US policy on the Israel-Hamas war and possible shifts in polling with the expected withdrawal on Friday of independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who may endorse Trump.

The controversial scion of America’s revered Kennedy clan is planning an announcement in Arizona, while Trump is also campaigning in the state, and promising to showcase a “special guest.”

Analysts are mixed on the effect a Kennedy exit would have.

He is polling in the low single digits and his embrace of conspiracy theories has made him a fringe figure.

However, in a very tight race, it is possible that even a few thousand votes in a crucial swing state could ultimately determine who takes the White House.

Democratic heavy hitters, from Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton to vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, have warned that the party could still lose to Trump’s Republicans if complacency creeps in.

“If we see a bad poll — and we will — we’ve got to put down that phone and do something,” the former first lady told the party faithful in Chicago.

Walz, a former school football coach, used a sporting analogy, saying that Democrats were “down a field goal, but we’re on offense and we’ve got the ball.”

Reaching for the centre

Trump has largely been singing to the choir, mobilizing his right-wing base with apocalyptic warnings about migrant criminals and painting a dark picture of a country in “decline” that only he can save.

Harris and her Democrats have been reaching toward the centre.

Party strategists spent the week in Chicago showcasing a parade of anti-Trump Republicans, including ex-cabinet officials, a small-town mayor and a former statewide officeholder.

“If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat, you’re a patriot,” former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan said.

While they previously characterised Trump as a demagogue, Democrats have instead begun making fun of the Republican nominee in a manner designed to belittle him and dent his aura of invincibility.

Harris called him an “unserious” person.

Harris, who has no events announced for the weekend, heads back to Washington with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff on Friday to begin sketching out a battle plan for the next 70-plus days.

“I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations,” Harris said in her keynote speech, earning uproarious applause.

“A president who leads and listens, who is realistic, practical and has common sense and always fights for the American people.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)