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Secret Service Tag

Posted by Amy Miller on March 13, 2015 13 Comments
It's not every day that a Secret Service agent gets drunk, crashes a government car into the White House security barricades, and almost gets away with it---but when it does happen, you'd better believe Congress is going to tear that guy's boss a new one. ICYMI, that day happened this week. Two senior Secret Service agents got behind the wheel after a White House party, explored a security barrier with the bumper of their car, and were nearly arrested for it before being saved by a senior supervisor who happened to be on duty. Oh, and one more small detail---they drove through an active bomb investigation. At the White House. IN FRONT OF PEOPLE. This is a caps lock-ey kind of post, which we normally frown upon here at Legal Insurrection; but really, what is there to say, and how else should I say it? New Secret Service director Joseph P. Clancy has only been mopping up agents for a month, but he's already scheduled to testify before a House subcommittee Watch:

Posted by Amy Miller on March 02, 2015 10 Comments
There are snipers on the White House roof. Forget teams of fences, dogs, pressure-triggered alarms, or roving bands of secret agents. We have snipers. Can you imagine the conversations those snipers have when some yahoo hops a barrier and makes a run at the front door? Because that happened again today. Twice. Via the Daily Mail:
On Sunday night, an unnamed suspect stepped over a bike rack situated outside the White House fence. The bike racks were installed last year following a high-profile fence-jumping incident that involved an Army veteran armed with a knife. Early Monday morning, another person attempted to walk through a gate while a construction crew were leaving. According to NBC, both men were taken into custody, and the Secret Service has given the all-clear at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The agency has been tight-lipped about the two breaches, which are now under investigation. The suspects have not been named. The bike rack-jumping incident took place at around 11.30pm Sunday near the southwest corner of the presidential residence, reported MyFox DC. The male suspect was arrested and charged with unlawful entry. The breach led to a 30-minute lockdown at the White House. Just before 7am Monday, another man allegedly tried to walk into a pedestrian entrance as construction workers were leaving the area. A Secret Service agent stopped the intruder in his tracks and arrested him after a brief confrontation. The White House was placed on another lockdown that lasted only a few minutes following the second incident.

Posted by Amy Miller on January 26, 2015 21 Comments
I suppose it will eventually stop being disconcerting every time someone breaches the 4 invisible walls surrounding the White House, but until that day happens, I think there's an argument for license to make a "concerned-and-confused-and-even-disgusted" face when these sorts of things happen. I woke up early this morning to a message from a friend asking, [w]hat is going on with the security at the White House? I mean, besides the obvious racism of the secret service? That's when I found out that this had happened, via the Daily News:
There was a security scare at the White House early Monday when a two-foot quadcopter drone was found in the middle of the night on the executive mansion's grounds. The U.S. Secret Service is investigating, White House spokesman John Earnest said, but the aircraft did not pose a threat to the building. President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were on a three-day visit to India, but their daughters, Sasha and Malia, were at the White House. An unnamed law enforcement official told NBC News the drone landed in a tree just after 3 a.m. Monday on the southeast side of the complex. "An investigation is underway to determine the origin of this commercially available device, motive, and to identify suspects," said Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary.
According to reports, the drone was not "weaponized," but thank God the Obamas were out of town, anyway.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 11, 2014 22 Comments
In a recent appearance on MSNBC, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank suggested an inconsistency between Republican desires to remove Obama from office, and Republican complaints that the Secret Service was not adequately protecting Obama from harm. Why is that inconsistent? Can't we both oppose a president and want to protect the President? The Presidency is greater than the man or his policies. Noah Rothman of Hot Air reported:
Milbank: Why would GOP want Secret Service to protect Obama? Among the fears Milbank suggests the GOP is aggravating for political gain are concerns that the Secret Service is underperforming. “They’re even making a campaign issue of the Secret Service,” The Post columnist said, “saying things are so bad that even the President of the United States, the President of the United States we would like to remove from office by the way, is not being adequately protected by the Secret Service.” First, what a shocking and offensive insinuation to make. Yes, Republicans (and Democrats, I’d venture) can oppose a president of the opposite party and also not want any harm to come to them. Second, the suggestion that voicing concerns about the increasingly apparent incompetence in the Secret Service amounts to fear mongering is just as insulting.
Here's a video of the exchange: Of course, this could be a classic case of media projection.

Posted by Amy Miller on October 09, 2014 16 Comments
Today's "Worst Administration Ever" story is a throwback to the Great Secret Service Sex Scandal of 2012, in which almost two dozen Secret Service personnel were fired after allegations surfaced that several agents had engaged in misconduct involving Colombian prostitutes. Now, reports have surfaced refuting White House claims that no staff members had been involved in any wrongdoing. The Washington Post reports:
As nearly two dozen Secret Service agents and members of the military were punished or fired following a 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia, Obama administration officials repeatedly denied that anyone from the White House was involved. But new details drawn from government documents and interviews show that senior White House aides were given information at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance-team member — yet that information was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged.... The Secret Service shared its findings twice in the weeks after the scandal with top White House officials, including then-White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler. Each time, she and other presidential aides conducted an interview with the advance-team member and concluded that he had done nothing wrong. Meanwhile, the new details also show that a separate set of investigators in the inspector general’s office of the Department of Homeland Security — tasked by a Senate committee with digging more deeply into misconduct on the trip — found additional evidence from records and eyewitnesses who had accompanied the team member in Colombia.
According to WaPo, the team member in question was Jonathan Dach, who now is a full time employee with the State Department's Office on Global Women’s Issues. Through a family attorney, Dach denies any "inappropriate conduct":

Posted by Amy Miller on October 01, 2014 17 Comments
CNBC is reporting that DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson has accepted the resignation of Secret Service Director Julia Pierson:
Secret Service Director Julia Pierson has resigned. Joseph Clancy, who formerly served as special agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division of the Secret Service, will be appointed as an interim acting director of the Secret Service.
White House correspondent for The Hill Justin Sink broke the news on Twitter:
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