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DHS watchdog declined to pursue investigations into Secret Service during Trump administration, documents show

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The chief federal watchdog for the Secret Service blocked investigations proposed by career staff last year to scrutinize the agency’s handling of the George Floyd protests in Lafayette Square and the spread of the coronavirus in its ranks, according to documents and people with knowledge of his decisions.

Both matters involved decisions by then-President Donald Trump that may have affected actions by the agency.
Joseph Cuffari, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, rejected his staff’s recommendation to investigate what role the Secret Service played in the forcible clearing of protesters from Lafayette Square on June 1, according to internal documents and two people familiar with his decision, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the discussions.

After the sudden charge by police on the largely peaceful protesters, the Secret Service was able to move Trump to a church at the edge of the park, where the White House staged a photo opportunity for the president.


Cuffari also sought to limit — and then the office ultimately shelved — a probe into whether the Secret Service flouted federal protocols put in place to detect and reduce the spread of the coronavirus within its workforce, according to the records.
Hundreds of Secret Service officers were either infected with the coronavirus or had to quarantine after potential exposure last year as Trump continued to travel and hold campaign events during the pandemic.

DHS investigators argued that both investigations were essential to their office’s duty to hold the department and the Secret Service accountable, according to the people.
The Secret Service has declined to answer questions about the agency’s role in the Lafayette Square episode, though officials have stressed the clearing of protesters was under the direction of the U.S. Park Police.


The agency has also asserted that it followed best practices and federal protocols to try to contain the spread of coronovirus and prioritized the health of its employees.
Cuffari’s decisions not to pursue the probes were revealed in records obtained by the Project On Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group, and shared with The Washington Post.

Staff argued that the coronavirus investigation should have been a high priority because of the health risks at stake, the people said. Internal DHS reports showed a spike in the number of Secret Service employees who tested positive for coronavirus last summer, a situation that potentially endangered their co-workers, senior government officials and even the president. Trump contracted the coronavirus in the fall, although it is unclear how he was infected.


The DHS inspector general’s office has not launched a probe specifically examining the Secret Service’s performance since the Obama administration.
Erica Paulson, a spokeswoman for the inspector general, said in a statement that Cuffari prioritizes investigations based on a limited budget and greenlights those that target the highest risks and are likely to have the greatest impact.

“Our office does not have the resources to approve every oversight proposal,” she said. “We have less than 400 auditors and inspectors to cover the entire Department of Homeland Security, an agency with almost half a million employees and contractors. Like all IGs, we have to make tough strategic decisions about how to best use our resources for greatest impact across the Department.”
Paulson continued: “In both of these cases, we determined that resources would have a higher impact elsewhere.”


Staffers inside the inspector general’s office privately complained that Cuffari — a Trump nominee confirmed in 2019 who previously worked for two GOP governors in Arizona, Jan Brewer and Doug Ducey — at times appeared skittish about investigations that could potentially criticize the president’s policies or actions, according to the people with knowledge of discussions.

Paulson disputed that, noting that Cuffari launched probes that examined controversial polices of the Trump administration, including those of DHS detention facilities. Cuffari’s office reported last year on the Secret Service’s total spending for Trump’s 2018 visit to the Trump Turnberry Golf Course in Scotland, an audit requested by Congress and launched by Cuffari’s predecessor.
“Evidence that IG Cuffari does not shy away from politically sensitive topics can be found in numerous DHS OIG published reports, as well as ongoing projects,” Paulson said in her statement.


The revelation that he declined to approve the two proposed Secret Service investigations could fuel criticism that Cuffari provided weak oversight of the second-largest federal agency at a time when Trump frequently used the Department of Homeland Security to implement some of his most polarizing policies. The House Committee on Homeland Security, whose chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) has raised alarm about what he considers Cuffari’s failure to conduct thorough investigations, has scheduled an oversight hearing Wednesday on the inspector general’s oversight.

“Cuffari pulled his punches on exactly the type of sensitive reviews his office was created to perform,” said Nick Schwellenbach, senior investigator at the Project On Government Oversight. “It doesn’t look like he’s an independent watchdog.”
Last summer, staff investigators in the inspector general’s office believed they had strong arguments for taking a close look at the Secret Service’s handling of both the Lafayette Square clearing and the agency’s coronavirus protocols.


Both issues had spurred intense criticism — the first for violating Americans’ right to protest and the second for potentially endangering workers’ lives and public health.

According to internal documents, Cuffari’s investigators submitted a draft plan on June 10 to investigate whether the Secret Service violated its use-of-force policies in the June 1 clearing of Lafayette Square, an abrupt move by law enforcement about 30 minutes before Trump marched through the park for a photo op. The staff noted that hundreds of protesters had been shot at with rubber bullets and sprayed with chemical irritants; 60 people had been injured.
Trump and his aides planned the walk across the park to project a look of strength and control over the city amid the civil unrest that followed Floyd’s death. The U.S. Park Police order that came about 6:30 pm to forcibly clear Lafayette Square shocked senior D.C. police officers and National Guard officers on the ground, they have said, because the protesters that Monday had been largely peaceful and did not pose an imminent threat.
Officials familiar with Lafayette Square confrontation challenge Trump administration claim of what drove aggressive expulsion of protesters
But at a June 18 meeting to discuss possible new investigations, Cuffari said the office would not probe the Secret Service’s handling of the protests or clearing of the square, according to the two people familiar with the discussion. Instead, the inspector general suggested that Secret Service Director Jim Murray could look into the episode, they said.

 
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