Friday News Dump

Rocky Mountain News: News

Federal prosecutors have declined to press charges of impersonating a Secret Service agent against a White House volunteer who forcibly ousted three people from a speech by President George W. Bush in Denver on March 21.

The announcement was made without explanation today in a letter from the Secret Service to Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar and Reps. Mark Udall and Diana DeGette, all Democrats who had asked for the agency to investigate the incident.

The three people who were ousted – Alex Young, 26, Karen Bauer, 38, and Leslie Weise, 39 – say the event staffer was dressed like a Secret Service agent, in a suit, radio earpiece and lapel pin that identifies people with security clearance. Bauer and Weise say that when they were pulled aside at the gate, they were told by another event staffer that they were waiting for a Secret Service agent, and then this man showed up. Though he did not tell them he was an agent, they said he did threaten to arrest them if they misbehaved.
...
The incident raised questions in Congress about whether the man had committed the crime of impersonating a federal officer.

The man's identity has been a matter of mystery for four months. The three have repeatedly demanded his identity, saying they wanted to sue him on free speech grounds.
...
The White House has described the man as a "White House volunteer." White House press secretary Scott McClellan backed the trio's ouster, saying in April, "If we think people are coming to the event to disrupt it, obviously, they're going to be asked to leave."

Hobbes (the philosopher, not the stuffed tiger) would be so proud.