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VP Was in Car Crash, Initially Characterized as ‘Mechanical Failure’: WaPo

Secret Service leadership only received the full truth of the incident hours after it occurred.

Vice President Kamala Harris was in a one-vehicle car crash in Washington, D.C., on Monday morning, with Secret Service agents initially mischaracterizing the accident as a “mechanical failure” to senior leadership, two people familiar with the incident told The Washington Post. Harris was unharmed in the crash, which occurred as the Secret Service agent ferrying her overcorrected when steering, striking the curb of a downtown tunnel around 10:20 a.m., an agency spokesperson said. The impact was strong enough to require both a tire replacement and Harris’ transfer to another vehicle. Agents then seemingly withheld key details of the crash from their superiors, with the Secret Service’s protective intelligence division ascribing the transfer to “a mechanical failure” in an internal alert, the Post reported. It was only in the afternoon that Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle was notified that the alert had not conveyed the truth of the incident, one source told the newspaper. An agency spokesperson said agents later briefed their bosses in person “with additional pertinent facts.”