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'Drunk' Secret Service agents may have driven over suspected bomb
Officials say 'drunk' agents disrupted the probe before crashing into a White House barricade
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 14 March, 2015, 1:06am
UPDATED : Saturday, 14 March, 2015, 1:06am
The Washington Post
Secret Service agents stand guard at the White House. Photo: EPA
Two US Secret Service agents suspected of driving under the influence and striking a White House security barricade with their car disrupted an active bomb investigation and may have driven over the suspicious package itself, according to government officials.
These and other new details about the March 4 incident emerged on Thursday from interviews and police records.
The episode has prompted questions from lawmakers about whether the newly appointed leaders of the Secret Service are capable of turning around the troubled agency. Questions include whether a Secret Service supervisor ordered officers to let the agents go home without facing sobriety testing.
An investigation by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general is focusing on the possible misconduct of two senior agents, including a top supervisor on President Barack Obama's protective detail.
The incident unfolded on a hectic night for Secret Service officers guarding the White House.
At about 10.25pm that night, a Pennsylvania woman hopped out of her blue Toyota near the southeast entrance of the White House, and, holding a package wrapped in a green shirt, approached an agent.
"I'm holding an [expletive] bomb," she yelled, according to a government official.
The woman then put the object on the ground and retreated to her car, the official said.
An agent reached inside the car and changed the gears to park, said the government official, but the woman was able to shift it back into drive and move forward, again hitting the agent and forcing him to jump out of the way. The woman then sped away.
Police quickly secured the area with tape and called an explosives inspection team to check the package for potential explosive materials.
But shortly before 11pm, the two high-ranking Secret Service agents, returning from a work party at a Chinatown bar, drove their government car through the crime scene.
Sources said they drove through police tape and then hit a temporary barricade, using the car to push aside some barrels.
The episode was caught on surveillance video. Investigators say the pair either drove very close to or over the suspicious item wrapped in the shirt.
Secret Service officers on duty considered the agents' behaviour to be erratic and suspected they were drunk.
The officers wanted to arrest the agents - but a more senior supervisor at the complex told them to let the agents go, some officials said.
Meanwhile, at 11.45pm the police explosives team determined the suspicious item was not a threat. The offending item turned out to be a book. The woman concerned is facing charges and is being questioned.
The agents under investigation are Mark Connolly, second-in-command on Obama's detail, and George Ogilvie, a senior supervisor in the Washington office. They declined to comment.
