AP

WASHINGTON SECRET Service agents and officers have been accused of involvement with prostitutes, leaking sensitive information, publishing pornography, sexual assault, illegal wiretaps, improper use of weapons and drunken behaviour, according to internal government reports reviewed by The Associated Press on Friday. It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the accusations turned out to be true.

The new disclosures of so many serious accusations since 2004 lend weight to concerns expressed by Congress that the Secret Service prostitution scandal in April in Colombia exposed a culture of misconduct within the agency. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan apologized for the incident during a hearing in May but insisted that what happened in Colombia was an isolated case.

A leading senator who has been investigating the Colombia scandal, Susan Collins, said some of the accusations appeared legitimate and that “adds to my concern about apparent misconduct by some of the personnel of this vital law enforcement agency.” “The key question is whether these incidents indicate a larger cultural problem,” Collins said on Friday.

Senator Joseph Lieberman, said on Friday an investigation by the Secret Service’s inspector general is continuing and the public should withhold judgment until that review is complete.

The heavily censored list, which runs 229 pages, was quietly released under the US Freedom of Information Act following the prostitution scandal. It describes accusations filed against Secret Service employees with the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general.