US secret agent arrested on child sex charges

The arrest of a uniformed Secret Service officer on charges of trying to solicit a teenage girl for sex while on duty at the White House and sending obscene images and texts online is the latest embarrassment for the agency charged with protecting the US president and his family.

Lee Robert Moore, 37, of Church Hill, Maryland, faces state charges of sexual solicitation and providing obscene material to a child under 18.

His arrest brings new scrutiny to a federal agency already reeling from scandals stretching back to 2012, when more than a dozen agents and officers were implicated in a prostitution scandal.

Former agency director Julia Pierson was ousted last year after the disclosure of two security breaches, including an incident in which a man armed with a knife entered the White House.