WASHINGTON (AP) " The deputy director of the Secret Service, who managed day-to-day operations during scandals that badly tainted the U.S. agency, will resign his position but be allowed to accept another job within the Homeland Security Department, the government said Monday.
Alvin "A.T." Smith, who was appointed to the No. 2 job in April 2012, will resign effective Tuesday. His career in the Secret Service lasted 29 years before he was forced out of the agency that protects the president and others.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican and others have criticized Smith, saying he was at the center of bad decisions in a sequence of Secret Service scandals that included White House security and behavior on foreign trips. Until the announcement, Smith had survived a leadership purge in the agency that had already claimed the job of Director Julia Pierson.
Chaffetz, head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the committee's top Democrat, Elijah Cummings, said Monday they commended the Secret Service for its recent job changes, including transferring Smith.
Smith will take a job with Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations unit, department spokeswoman Marsha Catron said. Catron did not indicate what Smith's job title would be or whether he would be working in a supervisory capacity.
