Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney, 4/23/12

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

1:25 P.M. EDT

        MR. CARNEY:  Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.  Thank you for coming to your daily briefing today, on this Monday.  I do not have any announcements at the top, so I’ll go straight to your questions.

        Ben Feller of the Associated Press.

        Q    Thanks, Jay.  A couple questions on the Secret Service. There’s a report out that a member of the White House Communications Agency is now being investigated.  Can you confirm whether that’s accurate?

        MR. CARNEY:  Well, I would refer you to questions about military personnel to the Defense Department.  As you know, WHCA — as we know it here — is staffed entirely by military personnel, not by White House staff and it is a Defense logistics agency.  And for everyone involved in the Defense Department’s investigation of members of the military as related to this incident, I would refer you to the Defense Department, just as for matters involving the Secret Service investigation into Secret Service personnel we refer you to the Secret Service.

        Q    There’s, as you know, a broader White House military office and WHCA is underneath that.  As you say, they’re composed of military members, but it is widely seen as part of the White House apparatus.  Are you saying that that –

        MR. CARNEY:  But, Ben, let’s just be clear.  These are military personnel staffed by the military.  They are not members of the White House staff.  They are not chosen by the White House senior staff.  They are no more members of the White House staff than Secret Service personnel, who you see every day on the grounds here, are members of the White House staff.  

        As is appropriate, personnel actions, investigations and otherwise, that affect members of the military are handled by the Defense Department.  And I would refer you to the Defense Department for questions regarding that.

        Q    And are you still comfortable in your statement that to your knowledge, no one other than members of the Secret Service or the military then are being

You can read the rest of this article at:: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/23/press-briefing-press-secretary-jay-carney-42312

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Posted by RobertButler on Apr 23 2012. Filed under Barack Obama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry