Sat Feb 2, 2013 1:38AM
Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan announced his retirement Friday after a nearly-three decade career and seven years as head of the agency responsible for protecting the president, vice president and visiting foreign dignitaries.
The decision
comes nearly a year after a prostitution scandal during President Obama's trip
to Colombia in April.
Secret Service
spokesman Edwin Donovan said the retirement becomes effective Feb.
23.
"I am extremely
proud to have had the opportunity to work with the men and women of the Secret
Service, and represent an agency so deserving of its reputation as one of the
finest law enforcement agencies in the world," Sullivan wrote in an email to the
agency.
Sullivan was
elevated to director of the agency and its 3,200 agents in 2006 after serving as
deputy director and earlier as assistant director for all agency protective
operations.
Sullivan's term
was also marked by scandal when a mix of Secret Service agents and military
personnel were implicated for their involvement in procuring prostitutes in
Cartagena, Colombia, last April in advance of President Obama's trip
there.
In testimony
before Congress last year, Sullivan apologized for the conduct of Secret Service
personnel in Colombia. USA Today
HIGHLIGHTS
The Secret
Service, part of the Homeland Security, has a dual role as the chief protective
service for the president and as an authority to police the nation’s financial
infrastructure. Businessweek
Spokesman Brian
Leary said on Friday that Sullivan would retire on February 22. There was no
statement on the reason for his decision to leave. CNN
Sullivan's
tenure at the Secret Service might be most remembered for the Colombian
prostitution scandal that enveloped the agency last year. The
Hill
Six agents were
fired or forced to resign after reports surfaced that they had partied with
prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, ahead of a presidential visit. The agency
insisted that presidential security was never at risk, but the incident was a
major black eye for the protective service. Another five agents lost their
top-secret security clearances. The Hill
There have been
more than five dozen allegations of sexual misconduct against employees of the
Secret Service in the last five years, according to Sen. Joseph Lieberman,
chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The
Daily Mail
AGB/AGB
