Drain the swamp: Obama’s ‘elite’ protectors lost their own badges, vehicles, weapons

The government agency responsible for protecting the President and his family, as well as providing security for the Vice President and other key officials and their families, can’t seem to locate a large amount of the agency’s own inventory including firearms, according to a report from a federal government watchdog.   Instead of his politically-motivated “probe” of Russia and their alleged hacking of the Democrats, President Barack Obama would be more effective as a leader if he investigated the U.S. Secret Service’s losses of equipment and identification.

According to the highly-successful, nonpartisan Judicial Watch, the once reputable law enforcement and security agency, the United States Secret Service, has allegedly “lost” a staggering number of desktop and laptop computers, portable communications units, cell phones, weapons, credentials — including official badges (shields) — and official marked and unmarked agency vehicles. It’s believed the losses occurred as a result of Islamic terrorists perpetrating an attack on the government databases.

The equipment had been reported missing or stolen by the agency’s brass, who still regard themselves as leaders of an elite law enforcement organization. Judicial Watch’s chief of investigations, Christopher Farrell, and other JW officials had requested the records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) nearly one year ago as part of their ongoing probe into the scandal-ridden Secret Service. The agency reports to the Secretary of the Treasury and, since 2002, also reports to Obama’s hand-picked Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, who is considered by many to be “in over his head.”

“Johnson as Secretary of Homeland Security is great at defending terrorists and adhering to President Obama’s policy of not mentioning terrorism and Islam or Muslim in the same sentence or paragraph. In his last speech, he even claimed global warming was the biggest problem facing the nation,” said former a former decorated police captain, Edward McMahon, Jr. “We cops call someone like Secretary Johnson ‘an empty suit,'” McMahon added.

The documents obtained by Judicial Watch revealed that:

Since 2001 dozens of weapons and pistols have gone missing, hundreds of agent badges and cell phones as well as scores of laptop and desktop computers and six agency motor vehicles. Labeled “lost and stolen assets” by the Secret Service, the records are broken down by year and type of equipment missing.

What’s defined as “lost” or “stolen” is considered vague for the records released that began in 2009. For example, according to the Judicial Watch report, one record titled “other equipment” reveals the loss of 793 items since 2009. The other, listed as “office equipment,” shows the loss of 201 items during the same period.

During the Bush administration in 2004, when 1,362 items were reported as lost or stolen, the record keeping seems more transparent: Radio equipment led with 191 lost items in addition to 53 laptops, 53 desktop computers, 26 badges and 25 cell phones, among others.

According to Judicial Watch: In 2014 the agency reported 1,032 items lost or stolen, among them hundreds of pieces of information technology equipment, 142 cell phones and a motor vehicle. In 2010 the records list 1,001 disappeared items, including dozens of badges, computers and cell phones. Some of the categories are too general and don’t offer specific descriptions of the equipment, but enough information is provided in the records to illustrate the severity of the negligence. Except for 2013 the Secret Service has lost more than 100 information technology items every year since 2009. For the portion of 2016 that’s been reported, the agency has already lost eight badges. In 2015 it was 18 and in 2014 it lost 25 badges.

It is unknown what actions were taken to discipline the agents involved in “lost badge” incidents. “In the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and other law enforcement jurisdictions, the loss of a police shield (badge) would result in a suspension without pay or a reduction in pay (a RIP) for the officer. And Lord help that cop if that shield is used to commit a serious crime,” former police detective Eileen Ringwald told Conservative Base..

Other scandalous behavior involving the Secret Service have made frontpage news stories during the current administration. The scandals included agents driving government vehicles while drunk, a dozen agents caught with prostitutes in their hotel rooms during the 2012 world leaders’ summit attended by President Obama, and an incident in which an intruder managed to bypass the White House security detail.

“The Secret Service suffered another major blow when a psychologically disturbed man with a knife jumped over the White House fence and ran across the North Lawn, into the executive mansion and to the entrance of the East Room. Last year a drone flew over the White House and landed in an area that’s supposed to be secure. The device was described as a quadcopter drone and the Secret Service told media outlets that it crash-landed in a tree on the southeast side of the complex around three in the morning,” said the Judicial Watch report.

More than a few local police officers and sheriffs’ deputies told Conservative Base that they were wondering why federal law enforcement agencies aren’t scrutinized the way local agencies are routinely probed, sometimes being turned upside-down by the U.S. Justice Department and the news media. “Attorney General Loretta Lynch like her predecessor [Eric Holder] never passes up a chance to send her investigators into small police or sheriffs departments and dig and dig and dig until they find something to give a press conference about. If Lynch was so interested in Justice, she has a number of agencies in the Obama government that could use a good ‘house cleaning’ starting at the top with Obama appointees,” said former police internal affairs investigator Charles Rudolph.

The Conservative Base and its editor Jim Kouri thank the following Judicial Watch officials for their excellent work exposing corruption and fraud within the government and the news media:

• Chris Farrell – Director of Investigations
• Geoff Lyon – Investigative Counsel
• Sean Dunagan – Senior Investigator
• Bill Marshall – Senior Investigator
• Micah Morrison – Chief Investigative Reporter
• Kate Bailey – FOIA Program Manager
• Kirsti Jespersen – Investigator
• Justin McCarthy – Research Associate