As part of a shake-up in the top ranks of the Secret Service, the agency’s second-highest official is transferring to a job at the Department of Homeland Security, the agency said Monday.
Deputy Director Alvin “A.T.” Smith accepted a position at the department starting Tuesday, said acting Director Joseph P. Clancy.
“Deputy Director Smith has had an exceptional law enforcement career spanning nearly 29 years within the United States Secret Service,” Mr. Clancy said. “His contributions to the agency have been invaluable. I salute his distinguished service to the Secret Service and the nation.”
Mr. Smith was appointed to the position of deputy director in April 2012 with responsibility for oversight of the protection service’s daily operations, including 6,500 employees and investigative and protective programs.
The agency is moving out or reassigning four top officials in the wake of a series of security breaches at the White House, including a man last year who jumped the fence on the North Lawn and ran all the way into the executive mansion before he was apprehended.
The leadership changes had claimed the job of Julia Pierson as director.
A Homeland Security inspector general’s report last year revealed that Mr. Smith had a role in ordering several agents to leave their posts at the White House to monitor a neighborhood dispute in La Plata, Maryland, involving another Secret Service employee.
The report said President Obama was at the White House on at least two days that the agents were “a 50-minute drive (without traffic) from the White House.”
“The Secret Service’s mission is to protect the president of the United States, and not to involve itself in an employee’s purely private dispute best handled by the local police,” the report said.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican who called for Mr. Smith’s firing, commended the agency Monday for its personnel moves in a joint statement with Rep. Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the committee.
The lawmakers said the panel would reschedule a Thursday hearing, when they expected to hear from Mr. Clancy.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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