According to documents from the Department of Homeland Security, President Joe Biden’s dog Commander bit Secret Service agents at least ten times between October 2022 and January 2023, including one incident that necessitated a trip to the hospital for an injured law enforcement official.
On Tuesday, Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog organization, made available over 200 pages of Secret Service documents it had received through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
The organization claimed it launched the lawsuit after the department, a subsidiary of DHS, “failed to respond adequately” to its request for documents regarding incidences of purebred German Shepherd Dogs biting last December.
The group claimed to have made the request following a report about the commander’s conduct.
On Tuesday, the Secret Service and the White House both seemed to downplay the circumstances.
The White House compound is a “unique and frequently stressful environment” for family pets, according to Elizabeth Alexander, first lady Jill Biden’s communications director.
She added that the Biden family was “working through ways to make this situation better for everyone.”
The Secret Service’s chief spokesperson, Anthony Guglielmi, stated in a subsequent email that his office has “navigated how best to operate around family pets, and these incidents are no exception” for the previous several presidents.
We take our employees’ safety and well-being very seriously. Numerous Secret Service agents are stationed all around the presidential palace and its expansive grounds to offer security protection for the president and his family.
In December 2021, James sent Biden a gift in the form of Commander. Another German shepherd named Major, the previous dog of the president, had been taken to live with friends in Delaware following some of his own issues involving Secret Service agents and White House personnel.
Willow, the family’s cat, is another pet.
A Secret Service agent informed coworkers by email on November 3, 2022, that Commander had bit a uniformed officer twice, on the upper right arm and leg. After attending to the officer, the White House medical staff decided that the person should be brought to the hospital.
Later on that day, a captain of the Uniform Division sent an email to say that he had learned that the commander had all of his shots.
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