Secret Service Agents Were Drunk Before Crash
The director of the Secret Service has said he is "disturbed" after a report found two agents who drove through a secure area at the White House without authorisation were probably drunk.
Marc Connolly and George Ogilvie are accused of driving their car through a security barrier on 4 March, while on-duty Secret Service agents were investigating a suspected bomb threat.
Mr Connolly, who has announced his retirement ahead of the publication of the report on Thursday, was the second in command in charge of Barack Obama's Presidential Protection Division.
Mr Ogilvie, the assistant special agent in charge of the agency's Washington field office, has been placed on administrative leave.
Homeland Security Inspector General John Roth found that the agents had spent around five hours in a bar for a colleague's retirement party and ran up a "significant" bar tab before driving to the White House.
The bar tab included eight glasses of scotch and two vodka drinks.
Neither man was given a field sobriety test and they were both allowed to drive their government vehicles home.
Mr Roth found they "displayed poor judgement and a lack of institutional awareness" and that "more likely than not both Connolly and Ogilvie's judgement was impaired by alcohol".
Both men had denied being drunk.
Joseph Clancy, Director of the Secret Service, said the behaviour was "unacceptable and will not be tolerated".
He said: "Our mission is too important. We owe it to the other 99% of Secret Service employees who perform their duties every day ethically and with dignity.
"The Secret Service has and will continue to institute policies and practices to address employee misconduct and demand the highest leevel of professionalism of all employees."
The department's inspector general has been investigating allegations that Mr Connolly and Mr Ogilvie had been drinking when they drove into the area.
The pair have also been accused of hitting a construction barrier with their vehicle as other agents investigated a suspicious item at the scene.
It is the latest embarrassment for the agency after a string of incidents involving agents.
Last month, Secret Service supervisor Xavier Morales was reportedly placed on leave after he was accused of making unwanted sexual advances to an employee.
Former director Julia Pierson stepped down in October after a White House breach on 19 September where a man carrying a knife jumped the fence and ran into the executive mansion.
Mr Clancy was chosen by Mr Obama to head the agency after a series of high-profile security lapses led to a shake-up in the leadership of the agency charged with protecting the president.
In 2013, an agent was found to be drunk by staff at a Dutch hotel the day before the US President was set to arrive in the Netherlands and a senior supervisor left a bullet behind after going to a woman's room in a hotel.
And in 2012 it was revealed that agents had hired prostitutes while in Cartagena, Colombia, in advance of a trip by Mr Obama.
