Secret Service In Hot Water After Report Shows Agents Left Their Post
WASHINGTON (WJZ) -- An agency deep in turmoil is dealt another blow, this time in a scathing federal report. The Secret Service is in the hot seat for pulling officers from their White House post to settle a personal errand in Maryland.
Christie Ileto explains.
Call it Operation Moonlight, a so-called 2011 mission that pulled Secret Service agents from protecting the president to handle a personal matter in La Plata.
The Inspector General called it a "serious lapse in judgment" Wednesday.
A report just released shows the team known as "Prowler" left its DC post 50 minutes away to handle a fellow employee's feud with her neighbor.
"These agents were supposed to look for snipers," said former Washington Post reporter Ronald Kessler.
Kessler says this forced a security breach.
"On July 1, 2011, Marine 1 lifted off with the whole Obama family and they were not protected whatsoever because these agents were diverted to southern Maryland," he said.
Now the Security of Homeland Security wants answers.
"He's asked the acting director of the Secret Service, Mr. Clancy, to review the investigation into the allegations and take the appropriate action," said White House spokesman John Earnest.
Agents went to La Plata on five different days in July 2011. President Obama was in the White House on two of those days when the Prowler team was away monitoring another employee's home.
It's the latest embarrassment from an agency plagued with problems including last month's White House fence jumper who entered the president's home armed with a knife and the 2012 prostitution scandal at a Colombia hotel.
But this bizarre stint is yet another black eye for the Secret Service trying to win back the public's trust.
The agency insists the president's safety was never compromised.
Calls to the La Plata home where Team Prowler went were unreturned.
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