Chaffetz Reveals ‘Stunning Revelation’ Secret Service Director Disclosed in Meeting: ‘Unfathomable’

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Wednesday that it's possible the Secret Service erased surveillance tapes of two supposedly intoxicated agents driving a vehicle through an active bomb scene investigation site.

Speaking to CNN and CBS News, the House Oversight Committee chairman said the revelation was made known to several lawmakers during a closed-door meeting with Secret Service Director Joe Clancy.

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"We inquired if there were additional tapes and angles and the director informed us that there may not be because it's their policy to erase them 72 hours after they record, which is just unfathomable," Chaffetz told CNN. "I can't think of any good reason to do that."

"This is not your local 7-11. This is the White House," he added.

The Republican lawmaker told CBS that the news left the entire room in astonishment.

"I don't think anyone in that room could believe it," Chaffetz said. "That's just a stunning revelation that 72 hours after they make a tape they destroy it? That doesn't make any sense to us."

Chaffetz also questioned why some tapes would be destroyed, when others were preserved.

"If it's regular policy to destroy them after 72 hours, why did they have two of the tapes, and where are the rest of the tapes? And so far the Secret Service has not been able to answer the question," he told CBS.

The two senior agents — including Mark Connolly, the No. 2 on Obama's security detail — had been with other agents drinking at a bar earlier this month when they returned to the White House in a government car, a U.S. official said. The vehicle entered an area already closed off by the Secret Service, who were investigating a suspicious package and had put the White House on lockdown. Officers on the scene saw the agents' car, traveling slowly, make contact with a barrier, the official said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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