WASHINGTON – The Secret Service may have erased surveillance videos following a crash into a White House security barrier involving two agents.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) told CBS News Wednesday that he had watched two videos from around the White House after the crash. However, he says that in a closed-door meeting Tuesday, Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy told him it is common policy to destroy surveillance tapes from around the White House after 72 hours.
“That’s just a stunning revelation that 72 hours after they make a tape they destroy it? That doesn’t make any sense to us,” Chaffetz told CBS News.
The crash occurred on March 4, when the Washington Post reported that agents drove a government car into a barrier while allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol. Following the crash, Chaffetz and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) released a statement, saying, “The fact that this event involved senior-level agents is not only embarrassing but exhibits a clear lack of judgment in a potentially dangerous situation.”
Two surveillance tapes from the night of the crash remain, but CBS News reports that neither shows the agents getting out of the vehicle.
Chaffetz added that the existing tapes show the car coming within just a few feet of hitting a suspicious package that was under investigation at the time.
