Secret Service slammed for pulling guards from White House

Reuters / Kevin Lamarque

Reuters / Kevin Lamarque

New disclosures reveal Secret Service leadership thought an employee’s private dispute was more important than guarding President Obama and his family.

Government investigators say the Secret Service pulled agents
from their posts near the White House in 2011 and sent them to
the home of agency employee over a fight with a neighbor, The
Washington Post reported.

READ MORE: Man
jumps White House fence, kicks dog, causes lockdown

The latest revelation comes from a report by the inspector
general of the Department of Homeland Security, and is the latest
embarrassment for the agency responsible for guarding the
president and his family.

These agents, who were there to protect the president and
the White House, were improperly diverted for an impermissible
purpose. This constituted a lapse in judgment
,” Inspector
General John Roth said in a statement.

The seven-page report said the incident began when a secret
service employee told her supervisor about an altercation with a
neighbor that resulted in her father being assaulted and losing
several teeth.

A now-retired deputy director, Keith Prewitt, thought the agency
should help. A.T. Smith, the assistant director for
investigations – and now deputy director – ordered security
checks at the worker’s home in Maryland, a 50-minute drive from
the White House without traffic.

The inspector general found no legal or procedural justification
for such behavior, and said the Secret Service should have let
local police handle the dispute.

The report comes on the heels of the resignation of agency
director Julia Pierson, which followed a series of scandals.

READ MORE:
US Secret Service director resigns after series of scandals

Pierson resigned shortly after a congressional hearing into
recent Secret Service failures. Lawmakers were able to point to a
laundry list of misdeeds and lapses: wannabe reality TV stars
crashing a White House state dinner, the Colombia prostitution
scandal, excessive drinking by agents in the Netherlands, and
vagueness about a man who shot at the White House in 2011.

On Wednesday evening, there was another fence-jumping incident at
the White House, the third since September when two security
breaches sparked nationwide scrutiny of the Secret Service.

READ MORE:
US Secret Service chief faces scrutiny after latest security
lapse

Pierson was originally appointed to her position to try and clean
up the Secret Service’s reputation. Pierson has been replaced by
Joseph Clancy, an agency veteran who had retired.




Source Article from http://rt.com/usa/198752-secret-service-scandal-private/

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