By Carol D. Leonnig and Peter Hermann March 12
Two Secret Service agents suspected of being under
the influence while striking a White House security barricade drove through an
active bomb investigation and directly beside the suspicious package, according
to current and former government officials familiar with the incident.
These and other new details about the March 4
incident emerged Thursday from interviews and from police records obtained by
The Washington Post.
The revelations spurred fresh questions Thursday
from lawmakers about whether the newly appointed director of the Secret
Service, Joseph P. Clancy, is capable of turning around the troubled agency.
Among lawmakers’ questions was whether Clancy, a
27-year Secret Service veteran appointed to his job last month after a string
of embarrassing agency missteps, has been aggressive enough in his handling of
last week’s incident.
Clancy placed the two senior agents involved in the
incident in new “non-supervisory, non-operational” jobs pending an
investigation — a less stringent approach than the service has taken in the
past, when staffers suspected of misconduct were put on administrative leave or
pressed to resign or accept demotion. Also, Clancy did not take action against
a senior supervisor on duty that night who, according to officials briefed on
the incident, ordered Secret Service officers to let the agents go home without
giving them sobriety tests.
Through a spokesman, Clancy declined to comment on
the case, saying he had referred the matter to be investigated by the
Department of Homeland Security inspector general.
Clancy has told lawmakers he learned of the
allegations Monday, according to people familiar with the discussions. That is
five days after the incident, which involved two of his most senior agents,
including a top member of President Obama’s protective detail.
Lawmakers did not learn of the episode, however,
until it was reported by The Post on Wednesday.
On Thursday night, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah),
the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the
panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.), sent Clancy a letter
asking for a detailed briefing on the incident, which they called “extremely
serious” and said raised concerns about the path to reforming the agency.
“This incident also raises important questions
about what additional steps should be taken to reform the agency and whether
the problems at the USSS run deeper than the recently replaced top-tier of
management,” they wrote.
The lawmakers also cited the “zero tolerance”
policy the service said it followed when it immediately moved to recall agents
suspected of drinking during the job on presidential trips to the Florida Keys
and Amsterdam in 2014, saying that standard “should apply to USSS managers and
leadership just as it does to rank-and-file personnel.” The statement of zero
tolerance was made in April 2014 by the agency’s then-spokesman, George Ogilvie
— one of the agents now under investigation in connection with the incident
last week.
Chaffetz said Thursday he was concerned that the
events of March 4 suggest some in the Secret Service feel they are above the
law. “The director needs to send a message. He needs to signal there is going
to be new accountability in the agency,” he said. “We’re still learning all the
facts, but I’m still not very impressed by how this is going.”
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Thursday
that the president retains full confidence in Clancy. Schultz said Obama
learned about the incident “earlier this week” before The Post’s report and was
“disappointed” by the news.
The March 4 incident unfolded on a hectic night for
Secret Service officers guarding the White House.
About 10:25 that night, a woman hopped out of a
blue Toyota near the southeast entrance of the White House on 15th Street NW
and, holding a package wrapped in a green shirt, approached an agent.
“I’m holding a [expletive] bomb!” she yelled,
according to a government official with knowledge of the incident.
The woman then put the object on the ground and
retreated to her car, the official said. The agent ran to the car and opened
the front passenger-side door and ordered the woman to get out. But she then
put the car in reverse and accelerated, striking the agent with the open door.
The agent reached inside the car and forced it into park, said the government
official, but the woman was able to shift it back into drive and drive forward,
again hitting the agent and forcing him to jump out of the way.
The woman then sped off.
Police quickly secured the area with tape and
called an inspection team to check the package for potential explosive
materials or other dangers.
But shortly before 11 p.m., the two high-ranking
Secret Service agents, returning from a work party at a Chinatown bar about
eight blocks from the White House, drove their government car through the crime
scene. According to people familiar with the incident, they drove through
police tape and then hit a temporary barricade, using the car to push aside
some barrels. An agency official said Thursday that the car was not damaged.
The episode was caught on surveillance video.
Investigators who reviewed the video of the incident initially said they could
not be sure whether the pair drove very close to or over the suspicious item
wrapped in the shirt, one law enforcement official said. But after reviewing
more video later Thursday afternoon, the official said, they concluded that the
agents’ government car drove directly next to the package.
Secret Service officers on duty that night
considered the agents’ behavior to be erratic and suspected they were drunk,
according to current and former officials familiar with the incident.
The officers wanted to arrest the agents — but a
more senior supervisor at the complex told them to let the agents go, the
officials said.
At 11:45 p.m. Wednesday, the police explosives team
determined the suspicious item was not a threat and gave the complex the
all-clear. The item was a book.
Secret Service officers found the woman they
suspected in the incident two days later to question her about the threats on
the White House, an agency official said. A police record said that she is from
Pennsylvania and has had contact with the Secret Service in the past and that
the agency had her photo on file.
On Thursday, a government official said a warrant
for the woman’s arrest had been issued through a D.C. court, charging her with
assault with a dangerous weapon, the car. The warrant remains sealed, and it
was unclear Thursday whether the woman was in custody.
The Secret Service agents under investigation are
Marc Connolly, the second-in-command on Obama’s detail, and Ogilvie, a senior
supervisor in the Washington field office. Both men have declined to comment.
Alice Crites, David Nakamura and Eddy Palanzo
contributed to this report.
Carol Leonnig covers federal agencies with a focus
on government accountability.
