WASHINGTON — The Washington Post reporter who broke the story about two Secret Service agents driving a government car into a temporary security barrier near the White House after a night of drinking says the incident reflects one change in the culture — and a troublesome aspect that has not changed.
“It is really surprising,” reporter Carol Leonnig said in an interview on WTOP Wednesday night, “that such high-level officials would be on the White House compound in a car, and potentially under the influence.”
One of the agents involved is reportedly Mark Connolly, the second-in-command on President Barack Obama’s security detail, as well as George Ogilvie, a senior supervisor in the Washington field office.
She says that a senior administration source told her that director Joseph Clancy referred the matter to the Department of Homeland Security.
“He basically concluded that his agency could not investigate its own here, and part of that was how senior these people were that were allegedly involved in this conduct,” she said.
That reflects a change in the culture for the agency, Leonnig says, after a series of embarrassing lapses in the past year that led to a change in leadership.
Leonnig says, officers wanted to take the two in after the incident, which occurred after an office retirement party at a downtown D.C. bar., but were reportedly told to let them go.
She calls that “a worrisome thing that, if true, has not changed about the service.”
She added that many of the officers and agents she has spoken to in her work covering the Secret Service “complained really bitterly about how there was a special club. And if you were a member of that club at the Secret Service, you were protected. Nothing bad would happen to you.”
She says they complained that senior people, people with connections on the presidential detail, or headquarters leadership got away with offenses as grave as drunken driving and violating a restraining order, while others, “if they did something wrong, a ton of bricks would come down on them.”
Leonnig adds that the stress of the job takes a toll. Often officers are on the road for weeks at a time, with little time for themselves or their families.
“I know a lot of Secret Service agents that I really respect a great deal — and their dedication to their job, their dedication to 100 percent perfection — it is really is hard to match. I do think it’s a pretty stressful position to be in.
“There’s a lot of sacrifice. So there are people who have told me that when they finally are off duty, they really feel like they’re off duty.”
