The agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton, Pa., told Andrew M. Seder of the Times Leader in Wilkes Barre, Pa., that allegations that someone yelled “kill him” when presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama’s name was mentioned during Gov. Sarah Palin rally on Tuesday are unfounded.
The reported incident was widely used in the national media after it appeared in the Scranton Times-Tribune in a story written by David Singleton. Most notably, by Keith Olbermann in a special comment criticizing Palin for not rebuking the comment even though she was not at the rally at the time. Other media that picked it up were
ABC News, The Associated Press, and The Washington Monthly.
Agent Bill Slavoski told the Times Leader that he was in the audience, along with other Secret Service agents and other law-enforcement officers and not one heard the comment.
“I was baffled” after reading the article, he told the Times Leader. He said an investigation into the report by the Secret Service found no one who heard the allegation. “We have yet to find someone to back up the story. We had people all over and we have yet to find anyone who said they heard it,” he told the Times Leader.
Slavoski told the Times Leader that the reporter Singleton stood by his story but was unable to describe the man, saying he did not see him, only heard him.
The Times Leader reported that Slavoski said the agents take such threats or comments seriously and immediately opened an investigation but after due diligence “as far as we’re concerned it’s closed unless someone comes forward.”
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