WASHINGTON – The Homeland Security Department is investigating two senior Secret Service agents accused of crashing a car into a White House security barrier, an agency spokesman said Wednesday.
Secret Service spokesman Robert Hoback said recently appointed Director Joseph Clancy has been briefed on the March 4 incident. Clancy has asked the Homeland Security Department's Inspector General's Office to investigate the incident.
Hoback did not provide additional details.
The agency said the two agents have been reassigned to non-supervisory, non-operational jobs.
The Washington Post first reported the investigation Wednesday afternoon. The newspaper reported that the agents drove a government car into a security barrier near the White House after a night of drinking.
The crash investigation is the latest embarrassment for the agency tasked with protecting the president.
In the last six months, several top agency officials, including former Director Julian Pierson, have been forced out amid revelations of multiple, serious presidential security breaches. In September, a Texas man armed with a knife was able to climb a White House fence and run deep into the executive mansion before being apprehended.
An internal investigation and an outside panel report both described serious problems within the agency.
A four-member panel of former senior government officials concluded in a report released last year that the agency was too insular and starving for leadership.
The panel recommended an agency outsider to replace Pierson, but President Barack Obama earlier this year tapped Clancy, a retired agent who led the agency on an interim basis after Pierson's ouster.
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