Secret Service Video of White House Incident Released

iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Surveillance video that captured a crash involving allegedly intoxicated Secret Service agents was released Tuesday showing a car driving at a slow speed just outside a White House checkpoint.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released the video from the incident that occurred earlier this month — and the video seems to corroborate statements made by the director of the Secret Service that initial reports of the alleged crash were overstated.

The D.C. Police video from March 4 shows the government vehicle driving at a slow speed when it pushed aside a plastic barrel standing outside a checkpoint. Before that incident, the video shows someone dropping a suspicious package in the area, but the video also shows no police tape or any other indication that there was an active crime scene when the government vehicle drove through it.

Last week, Secret Service director Joseph Clancy insisted recent reports of a “crash” at the White House by potentially intoxicated agents driving a government vehicle “are inaccurate,” and he pushed back on any suggestion that his agency deliberately “erased” other surveillance video showing the incident.

With several cameras in the area of the White House, video from certain angles of the incident were lost because, “by practice,” the cameras tape over their content every 72 hours, Clancy told lawmakers.

Nothing had been deliberately “erased,” he added.

Nevertheless, he said he has instructed his staff to contact the manufacturer of the cameras to see whether the company that built them can help retrieve the lost video.

“We understand it’s a concern,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to retrieve those images and be as transparent as we can be.”

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