WASHINGTON – The deputy director of the Secret Service, who managed day-to-day operations during scandals that badly tainted the agency, will resign his position but be allowed to accept another unspecified federal job within the Homeland Security Department, the government said Monday.
Alvin "A.T." Smith, who was appointed to the No. 2 job in April 2012, will resign effective Tuesday. His career in the Secret Service lasted 29 years before he was forced out.
"His contributions to the Agency have been invaluable," Secret Service Acting Director Joseph P. Clancy said in a statement.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and others have criticized Smith, saying he was at the center of bad decisions in a sequence of Secret Service scandals. Until the announcement, Smith had survived a leadership purge in the agency that had already claimed the job of Director Julia Pierson.
Chaffetz, head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the committee's top Democrat, Elijah Cummings of Maryland, said Monday they commended the Secret Service for its recent job changes, including transferring Smith elsewhere in the Homeland Security Department.
Because of the changes, the lawmakers said they were rescheduling Thursday's congressional hearing, when they expected to hear from Clancy.
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