WASHINGTON (AP) – Two senior agents accused of being involved in a drunken-driving crash at the White House earlier this month appeared to “nudge” a large construction barrier as they drove through a secure area, Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy told lawmakers Tuesday. He said he didn’t find out about the incident until days afterward.
Clancy, who was appointed by President Barack Obama earlier this year after a shakeup in the agency over security problems, told lawmakers that video of the March 4 incident shows the vehicle driving at a low rate of speed when it nudged the barrier.
The incident was initially described in press reports as an agent crashing a government vehicle into a security barrier while on-duty agents and officers investigated a suspicious item. But Clancy told members of a House Appropriations subcommittee that he has “seen nothing to indicate this incident as described occurred.”
Nonetheless, he said he was frustrated that he was not told about the incident for several days and only learned about it from an anonymous email.
“I should have been informed,” he told the House panel. And that delay, he said, suggests there is still a lot of work to be done to change the agency’s culture, including the use of alcohol.