In a startling discovery, it has been revealed that a top Secret Service team was compromised and the president left unprotected during a time when the team was moved in order to protect the personal friend of Mark Sullivan, the former director of the Secret Service. The incident occurred in 2011 but has recently come to light through a special internal review being undertaken by the Secret Service.
Sullivan had jurisdiction over a special team that is used to protect the perimeter of the White House. Sullivan’s assistant, Lisa Chopey, was reportedly being harassed by her next door neighbor so Sullivan ordered his agents from the White House to La Plata, Maryland, an hour’s drive from the White House. The team members are part of a special group known as “Prowlers” and 2 members were sent twice a day, in the morning and then during the evening. The detail was given the internal code name of Operation Moonlight for the two months the surveillance took place. On the first day of the surveillance detail, the team members were pulled shortly before President Obama boarded his helicopter, Marine One. This action left a designated sector unprotected during transit of the president.
The agents involved were so concerned over their assignment that they kept log books and registered official concerns over misuse of government assets. The complaint went to the office of the inspector general for Homeland Security Charles K. Edwards. Edwards was acting inspector general for the agency from 2011-2013 and wanted the job confirmed. He was well known to keep the company of powerful department heads at senior levels of the administration. When it came to Operation Moonlight and other issues, a special Senate committee felt that Edwards “altered and delayed” investigations.
Meanwhile Mike Sullivan is now retired from the Secret Service and runs a private security firm in Washington, D.C. Sullivan retired in disgrace after a team of Secret Service agents protecting the president in Colombia hired prostitutes while off duty. On March 26, 2013, Sullivan was replaced by Julia Pierson, the first female director of the agency.
