WH Staffers caught impersonating Secret Service agents-Again! +Update on the D3 Case

Do you Remeber the Denver Three?  Those three Ordinary folks folks who were thrown out of a Bush Rally because they committed the horrible crime of having the wrong Bumper Sticker on their car ?   Well they are back in the News again it's bad news for the White House

As you may recall,   The person who threw them out of the rally, and threatened to arrest them  falsely claimed to be a Secret Service Agent (Thereby committing a federal Crime).  You may also remember that the Whitehouse described the culprit only as  a "local volunteer".  Then they refused to any more questions from reporters or Lawyers for the D3.

There have been two big new developments in the case this week:


 a Secret Service investigation has positively identified  the mystery man  as a WH Staffer, thereby proving the WH lied to protect him.  

But that's only the begining of the Bad news for the WH.   This story now goes beyond the "one misguided staffer" excuse  because, 2 MORE  WH staffers  have been caught red-handed doing it AGAIN this week!:

 

Let's Start with Further Proof that Scotty MC'C is a Lying weasel: (these days that's the Liberal blogger's equivalent of pre-warm-up stretches):

When Asked about the Man who committed several crimes and blatantly violated the Denver Three's civil rights  to boot (42 USC$1983 is the phrase that Pays here.)

  Scotty the Weasel would say only this:

  MR. McCLELLAN: ... My understanding that a volunteer at this event -- and let me -- I need to back up before that. We use a lot of volunteers at events to help us in a number of different areas because you obviously have -- you tend to have a lot of people come into the event, a lot of logistical support that you need, and so we do rely on volunteers to help in a lot of different ways at events.

Now, in terms of this issue, my understanding is a volunteer was concerned that these three individuals were coming to the event solely for the purpose of disrupting it.

Got it?  All nice and Clear now?  The offending goon was merely an overzelous local yokel.  Case closed.   Except, well, not so much.  

as the Denver Post is reporting The "overzealous yokels" in question refuse to say who they worked for when asked by the D3's lawyer:

 In their lawsuit, Weise and Young claim that White House event staffers Michael Casper and Jay Bob Klinkerman detained them and ejected them from the event at the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum. However, Casper and Klinkerman say they don't need to reveal whom they worked for because of a "qualified immunity."  { I've frankly never heard of such a thing in a civil lawsuit before; I strongly suspect they made it up}

And of course that sort of gives away the store because why would a mere Volunteer have "qualified immunity" to refuse to reveal who it was they weren't working for? But lest there be any doubt, A new Secret Service report confirms their employment:

A White House staff member was responsible for asking three people to leave President Bush's town-hall meeting in Denver a year ago, a U.S. Secret Service agent said during an internal investigation of the event.

 

So much For Scotty McC's "Magic Volunteer" theory,  as the report now makes clear, WH staffers paid for by you and me are impersonating Law-enforcement personnel for the purpose of policing presidential rallies to ensure the ideological purity  of attendees.  In other words, The Bubble is tax-payer funded.

Not only that, but apparently, lying to people at Random about who they are and who they represent is Far from being a fluke or an aberration these days.  As This story in the Mississippi Sun Herald makes clear, Impersonating Secret Service agents, and even Journalists is now SOP for WH Staff:

There was a whirlwind of activity in the days prior to President Bush's arrival at a home on the beach in Gautier last week,...The reason for all the fuss was kept a secret even from the family that received Bush. They didn't know it was prelude to a presidential visit until the day Bush arrived.  But one part of the preparation for the President's arrival involved two government agents posing as journalists.

Well they STARTED posing as journalists but the two men, Really WH PR staffers were so inept they couldn't  even decide who they were impersonating:

 Jerry Akins, who received Bush, mentioned that on the Friday before Bush arrived, two men approached him identifying themselves as members of the media.

He said the men told him they were with Fox News out of Houston, Texas, and were on a "scouting mission" for a story on new construction. ....But after the president left Akins' home, the two men again approached Akins and let him know they were not media after all, but were with the governmental entourage.

Akins said the two showed him blue porcelain lapel pins that contained the Presidential seal and another government official confirmed the two were with the government entourage and not the media. Akins assumed they were Secret Service agents...Akins said he saw no problem with what happened, and agents laughed about their fooling him.

Well I'm glad  they had themselves  a hearty chuckle over these whacky hijinks.    Mr. Akins may have seen nothing wrong with their actions I'd be a hell of a lot more irate (not mention litigious) if I found that unspecified government agents had gained access to MY house under false pretenses.  

What strikes me most is how utterly stupid and unnecessary the  subterfuge was.  It's almost as if lying is a reflex that they fall into by default.   What would have been so hard about identifying themselves properly at the outset and told the homeowner what they were doing?  After all Mr. Akins appears to have been delighted to have W. visit

There are longstanding rules about government agents not impersonating Journalists, (not even on NOC)  and they exist for very good reason.   Such impersonations not only destroy the credibility of journalists, but they can also make their job a lot harder by reducing the willingness of people to trust them and endanger their lives by causing them to be seen as potential agents of an enemy and therefore a target.   That the WH staffers would violate them, more of less on a lark, lets you know how callously  the current WH disregards any law they find inconvenient