Murder at the President's House

by J. R. Johnson

  “The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the greatest liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.”

  H.L. Mencken

  The primary focus had been on Detective Michael Cradle’s investigation into the murder homicide of Richard Royster for the past several weeks but now its was time to take a glimpse into the agency with the arduous task of protecting the President and First Family.

  The developments come with the U.S. Secret Service, which protects the president and his family, in the midst of a shake-up after a series of scandals and security breaches at the White House. A US lawmaker leading a congressional inquiry into the secret service raised questions on Tuesday, June 14 about a White House volunteer possible involvement in a prostitution scandal that rocked the agency three years ago.

  The U.S. Secret Service investigates thousands of incidents a year of individuals threatening the President of the United States.

  The Director of the Secret Service is appointed by the President of the United States.

  The Secret Service’s initial responsibility was to investigate counterfeiting of U.S. currency, which was rampant during the Civil War. The agency involved into the United States first domestic intelligence and counterintelligence agency.

  Many of the agency’s mission were later taken over by subsequent agencies such as Federal Bureau of Investigations, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and Internal Revenue Service.

  The Secret Service was the first U.S. domestic intelligence and counterintelligence agency. Domestic intelligence collection and counterintelligence were vested in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) upon the FBI’s creation in 1908.

  As of 1993, the U.S. Secret Service has over 3,500 employees, 1.600 Special Agents, 650 Uniformed Division Officers, and 1,000 technical and administrative employees. Also, the Secret Service has agents assigned to 86 field offices and headquarters in Washington, D.C. with an annual budget of $550,000,000,000 million dollars.

  Special agents serve on protective detail, special teams or sometime investigate certain financial and homeland security-related crimes.

  Representative Joseph Carney, chairman of the House oversight and government reform subcommittee on national security, said in an interview that the White House had new questions to answer in light of information he has received from secret service whistleblowers as well as a report in Tuesday’s Washington Post. White House officials were adamant in denying involvement by anyone on their team in the incident. The scandal led to the firing of more than half-dozen secret service agents who had hired prostitutes while on assignment in Bogota with President Burd for the 1990 summit.

  After the incident was publicized, the Secret Service implemented new rules for its personnel. The rules prohibit personnel from visiting “non-reputable establishments and from consuming alcohol less than ten (10) hours before starting work. Additionally, they restrict who is allowed in hotel rooms.

  A few weeks later, stories emerged of Secret Service hiring strippers and prostitutes prior to Reid’s 1993 visit to the Dominican Republic.

  Carney, a Republican, suggested that based on his conversations with the whistleblowers, he feels that the White House might be covering up some information.

  The White House disputed claims that there was any attempt to suppress information related to a young volunteer on the White House advance team and whether he too, had a prostitute in his hotel room.

  “As was reported more than three years ago, the White House conducted an internal review that did not identify any appropriate behavior on the part of the White House advance team.” White House spokesman John Campbell said. “ And of course there was no White House interference with an inspector general investigation.”

  The Washington Post reviewed records from the Bogota hotel where the advance team stayed that identified the prostitute and appeared to show she had signed in to visit the room with the White House volunteer, identified by the newspaper as Rickey Dees.

  Rickey Dees is the son of a major Democratic donor, is now employed by the State Department. Michael Richards, a Washington lawyer representing Rickey Dees, said allegations that Dees brought a prostitute to his room during the 1990 trip to Bogota “don’t ring true.”

  In September 1990, the Department of Justice’s internal watchdog wrote in a summary of his investigation that there was a hotel record suggesting a member of Burd’s team might have been involved in the Bogota prostitution scandal. That summary report was sent to Congress.

  Edward T. Charles, the acting inspector general at the time, said in a summary that the employee, described by the administration as a volunteer, “may have had contact with foreign national” and may have been affiliated with the White House advance operation, “according to a letter to lawmakers obtained at the time by the Associated Press.

  Charles cited a hotel registry obtained by his investigators as documentary evidence.

  Also at the time, the White House said its own review concluded that a guest, possibly a prostitute signed in at the hotel front desk to visit the room assigned to the White House worker, but the hotel logbook was deemed false and there was no other evidence to corroborate the allegation.

  But the Post reported on Tuesday that the lead investigator on the case later told Senate aides that he felt pressured by his supervisor to withhold evidence and that political decisions were made in an election year.

  Carney said he had learned, as reported in the published account, that staffers who raised questions about the White House role were put on administrative leave.

  “All signs point to a major cover-up but I want to give the White House a chance to explain itself,” Carney said. He said the White House has not precisely how and why it was able to clear Dees of any wrongdoing. He said he planned to hold hearings on the matter.

  The June 7 incident involving a Texas Army veteran who jumped the White House and was able to make it deep into the Executive Mansion before being stopped is now just one of the several embarrassing disclosures about lapses in presidential security involving the U.S. Secret Service.

  Despite more than three hours of questioning by House lawmakers, Stephanie Henderson, the first female director of the secret service neglected to the murder of Richard Royster in the White House. Her failure to do so prompted Rep. Joseph Carney, R-South Dakota, to call for Henderson’s resignation--or firing--in an exclusive interview with Fox News Tuesday night.

  At Tuesday’s hearing, Henderson said she was the one who briefs Reid on threats to his personal security and said she had briefed him only once this, for the June 21 Royster’s murder.” She also disclosed that shortly before the alleged Lou Hernandez, Texas Army veteran scaled the White House fence at least two of her uniformed officers recognized him from an earlier troubling encounter but did not approach him or report his presence to superiors.

  Lawmakers were aghast, too, about a four-day delay in 1991 before the Secret Service realized a man had a fired a high-powered rifle at the White House, as reported by the Washington Post on the Sunday edition.

  Henderson told the hearing security plan for protecting the White House for protecting the White House was not “properly executed” on June 21. The Secret Security’s story about the extent of that breach changed late Monday after the Washington Post first reported that Hernandez got well past the front door of the White House. Previously it said Hernandez had been stopped just inside the front door. After several hours of questioning Tuesday, it remained unclear what and when Henderson knew about the incident.

  The June 21 murder and security breaches was the latest black eyes for the failing agency. Henderson was named director of the U.S. Secret Service in March 1992, tapped by Burd to change the culture of an agency that was then marred by the Bogota prostitution scandal.

  Several male U.S. Secret Service agents in an advance contingent before a presidential trip to Bogota, Columbia. had taken prostitutes back to their hotel rooms, accor
ding to investigations after the trip. A morning after the dispute between one agent and a woman over payment for her services led to the exposure of what happened and the ensuing investigations. Nine agents eventually resign or lost their jobs.

  Who is Stephanie Henderson?

  Henderson started her career in law enforcement as a young police officer in Orlando, Florida. She joined the U.S. Secret Service in 1983, working primarily in the Miami and Orlando field offices. Henderson became the Secret Service’s chief of staff in 1990. Before that, she served on the protective details of Presidents George Hoover Wilson Burd and Thomas Jefferson Reid. She had been the assistant director of the agency’s Office of Human Resources and Training, and held the title of deputy assistant director in the office of Protective Operations and the Office of Administration.

  Calls for Henderson to leave her post grew after her poor performance during her testimony Tuesday on Capitol Hill and another bombshell revelation the same day that an armed security contractor was allowed to get into an elevator with the President during a recent trip to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. Secret Service director testimony omits the elevator accident with President.

  And New York’s Charles Taney, the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate, had announced he would call for Henderson’s resignation on Wednesday as well, though that was later canceled.

  Republicans also had called for Henderson to step down as well.

  “It’s clear to me that the only way to solve the problem the Secret Service has is with new leadership, “ Sen Graham Rudd of South Carolina said, “What Stephanie Henderson describes as mistakes are major security failures on multiple fonts.”

  Rudd said, “light security around President Reid is the worst possible signal to send to terrorists and our enemies around the world.”

  On Wednesday, July 15 Stephanie Henderson, the first female director of the U.S. Secret Service resigned in the aftermath of the Hernandez incident and subsequent congressional inquiry uncovering other security lapses including the murder of White House Counsel Richard Royster on June 21.

  Attorney General Jaime Woods announced the resignation in an official Department of Justice statement. Woods said: “Today Stephanie Henderson, the Director of the United States Secret Service, offered her resignation, and I accepted it. I salute her thirty (30) years of distinguished service to the Secret Service and the Nation.”

  A source familiar with the situation told Fox News that Woods told Henderson the resignation would be effective immediately, after she offered it.

  He also that the Department of Justice would take over an internal inquiry of the Secret Service and he would appoint of a new panel to review security standard operational procedures at the White House complex.

  Joseph Duffy, formerly a special agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division of the Secret Service, was named as interim director of the United States Secret Service Woods said in her statement.

  After news of her resignation broke, lawmakers praised her decision to step down.

  “The agency tasked with protecting the highest office in our land should be the crown jewel of federal law enforcement.” Rep. Joseph Carney, who sits on the Oversight Committee, said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “I will work with my colleagues and the Reid Administration towards returning the agency to the standards the President deserves.”

  Even some high-ranking Democrats had turned against Henderson, who was in the job for less than two years. In an interview on Wednesday, Rep William Woodrow, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, where Tuesday’s hearing took place, said he thought Henderson who he referred to as “this lady” -- “has to go.”

  The Maryland congressman reiterated this stance in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “I want her to go if she cannot restore trust in the agency and if she cannot get the culture back in order,” he said. The top Democrat on the committee who grilled Henderson, notably told National Public Radio (NPR) she is “not the best person to lead the agency”--though he later clarified he thinks she should go if she can’t restore public trust.

  But a Secret Service source told CNN there is an elaborate closed circuit video system, and that video is being dissected to establish new security protocols.

  When Hernandez burst through the White House door, he pushed a female officer to the side. But the source said, “Gender was not a factor, she got one door secured but was pushed over while trying to get the second door shut.”

  An alarm box had been turned down near the front door at the White House after complaints by the White House usher’s office that it was too loud.

  A canine unit was not released to chase Hernandez, said the source because there were “too many friendlies around.”

  U.S. Secret Service vague with details to federal court following the fence jumping arrest.

  News of Henderson’s resignation came as new information is made available about the fence jumper came to light.

  Lou Hernandez , 40 was indicted on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty on Wednesday before Magistrate Judge Judy M. Ross in U.S. District Court. Judge Ross ordered additional mental testing on the forty (40) year old Vietnam war veteran to determine whether he is competent to stand trial for the incident.

  The White House fence jumper made it into the East Room of the White House.

  Meanwhile, the inquiry continues into how the Army veteran launched over the White House fence and was able to sprint up to the front door, burst into the White House, darted past several layers of security, and run briskly into the ornate East Room before being apprehended.

  Woods made sure to praise the overall work ethic of the Secret Service when she announced Henderson’s resignation.

  “It is worth repeating that the Secret Service is one of the finest official protection services in the world, consisting of men and women who are highly trained and skilled professionals prepared to put their own lives on the line in a second’s notice for the people they protect .”

  Henderson’s departure, though, marked a sharp turnaround from a day earlier, when despite her rocky performance during the congressional testimony, the White House voiced support for her leadership. Asked Tuesday whether President Reid had confidence in the Secret Service Director, source said “absolutely.”

  Among those reports was the stark revelation that on June 1, a security contractor armed with a gun who had previously been arrested for assault rode on an elevator with President Reid and his security detail at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta violating Secret Service protocol. The President was briefed on about the incident on Tuesday.

  New and alarming details also emerged--seemingly by the day--about the multiple security failures in the June 1 intrusion. Not until late Monday was it reported that he made it into the East Room, a detail that was confirmed by Henderson during her testimony on Capitol Hill before the congressional committee.

  Woods said that she now agrees that a “panel of independent experts” should review the June 1 incident--something that had been called for by lawmakers. She said a panel will submit its assessment and recommendations by November 15.

  “ I will also request that the panel advise me about whether it believes, given the series of events, there should be a review of broader issues concerning the U.S. Secret Service. The security of the White House complex should be the panel’s primary and immediate priority, “ she said.

  She said a separate internal review will be completed by October 1.

  Opinion: Can the U.S. Secret Service actually change it ways?

  The Washington Post headline read, “Secret Service Director Resigns After Security Failures” on the morning of July 16, 1993. Since the Secret Service Director Stephanie Henderson was the first to resigned in the Reid’s administration very young first term. Who else will be the next head to roll, roll away and rolled out? The FBI, White House staff and two independent counsels would all have had to agree to assist wit
h the coverup and the list does not include the conspirators in the actual murder of Richard Royster.

  President Thomas Reid announced unexpectedly on Friday, July 17, 1993 that Chief of Staff John Watkins was quitting and heading home, capping a short and rocky tenure that is expected to last until Election Day in November. Reid’s budget director William Murphy, a figure long familiar with Washington’s ways and means, its to take over one of the most time consuming jobs in America.

  Watkin’s run as Reid’s chief manager and gatekeeper lasted only five months. It was filled with consequential moments for the White House, like the murder of White House Counsel Richard Royster, but also stumbles with Congress and grumbles that Watkins was not the right choice to coordinate an intense of ideas, egos and decisions.

  Reid said, “he reluctantly accepted the news and at first had refused to accept Watkins resignation letter last week.”

  Watkin did not waver, expressing to his boss a desire to get back to his family in Memphis, where Reids have dominated local politics for decades. He offered no explanation on Friday about what accelerated his decision.