Secret Service agents under investigation after car crash near White House
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Homeland Security Department is investigating two senior Secret Service agents accused of crashing a car into a White House security barrier, an agency spokesman said Wednesday.
Secret Service spokesman Robert Hoback said recently appointed Director Joseph Clancy has been briefed on the March 4 incident. Clancy has asked the Homeland Security Department's Inspector General's Office to investigate the incident.
Hoback did not provide additional details.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The agency said the two agents have been reassigned to non-supervisory, non-operational jobs.
The Washington Post first reported the investigation Wednesday afternoon. The newspaper reported that the agents drove a government car into a security barrier near the White House after a night of drinking.
The crash investigation is the latest embarrassment for the agency tasked with protecting the president.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In the last six months, several top agency officials, including former Director Julian Pierson, have been forced out amid revelations of multiple, serious presidential security breaches. In September, a Texas man armed with a knife was able to climb a White House fence and run deep into the executive mansion before being apprehended.
An internal investigation and an outside panel report both described serious problems within the agency.
A four-member panel of former senior government officials concluded in a report released last year that the agency was too insular and starving for leadership.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The panel recommended an agency outsider to replace Pierson, but President Barack Obama earlier this year tapped Clancy, a retired agent who led the agency on an interim basis after Pierson's ouster.