by Chuck Sharman

A high-ranking official with the U.S. Marshals Service (“USMS”) is on paid leave. At the same time, the agency investigates a pair of allegations lobbed against him: that he had sex with a subordinate on his office sofa in July 2021 and that he also had other subordinates complete assignments for his graduate program and turn in the work as his own.

The office-tryst charge against two “senior” ranking marshals—one of whom colleagues said was Andrew Smith, who serves as Assistant Director of the USMS Tactical Operations Division—was uncovered in early October 2021 through a Freedom of Information Act request made by the Federal Managers Association (“FMA”), which works on behalf of federal employees in supervisory jobs like the one Smith holds.  

The second accusation against him surfaced later in October 2021, when an anonymous letter was sent to the U.S. Naval War College to alert the Rhode Island school that Smith “is under an internal investigation for tasking subordinates to complete class assignments, which he submitted to the Naval War College as his own work.”

The FMA’s request sought records involving “serious allegations of sexual misconduct by two agency employees within the senior ranks, purportedly at the Agency’s headquarters complex (i.e., in taxpayer-funded office space), that may have occurred on official time.”

Also requested was any “video or audio depiction” of the event, apparently because employees outside Smith’s glass-walled office may have made cellphone recordings of his dalliance with the unnamed woman.

The FMA sent a follow-up letter to the USMS saying it had received additional reports that Smith and the woman traveled together for work to Louisiana, staying offsite in a shared hotel room at “increased costs to the taxpayers.”

When an Internal Affairs investigation was launched into those accusations, Smith went on paid extended family medical leave from his position. He manages USMS crisis-response programs and national security and contingency programs. He is scheduled to return to work in mid-November 2021.

But shortly after that, he will be eligible to retire, thereby escaping any consequences for his misdeeds with a full pension if the investigation is not completed by then.

An unnamed source within the USMS told the New York Post that “when someone like Smith is allowed to run out the clock and retire unscathed, while rank-and-file deputies accused of far fewer indiscretions are punished and fired,” it begs the question: “Where is the justice?”

Source: New York Post

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