Reporting an arrest is a requirement of such a clearance.
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The one-sentence statement on the matter from Gordon Trowbridge, the deputy Pentagon press secretary, said that “In light of the pending criminal case involving Bryan Whitman, he has been placed on administrative leave while the department reviews this matter”.
During much of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was one of the Pentagon’s top spokesmen and a familiar figure to dozens of Washington reporters.
A high-level Defense Department official has been placed on administrative leave following his arrest for stealing license plates in a dispute over a neighborhood parking permit, the Pentagon said Thursday.
On Wednesday, Whitman’s colleagues in the public affairs office declined to say when the department became aware of the charges, if they were investigating his alleged misconduct, whether the case will impact his career or security clearance and how much he gets paid.
The incident began April 4, when Whitman left a chilling note on the windshield of a nanny using a visitor parking pass in the neighborhood.
The Capitol Hill license plate bandit went again in late April for a third theft, but was finally caught on a newly installed camera and subsequently identified as a major official, who has served in the Pentagon for two decades.
The case, which involves harassment of a nanny who parked her auto in Whitman’s neighborhood, will be closed if the man pays $1,000 in restitution, completes 32 hours of community service at a local food bank, keeps out of trouble for 10 months and stays away from the people he is accused of stealing from and harassing.
The source close to him insisted he didn’t know his target was a nanny.
Marx gave the footage to police who identified Whitman and obtained a search warrant for his home and auto.
The District’s Department of Transportation told the Post and The Associated Press that it’s legal for nannies to use visitor parking passes.
Washington has a lengthy history with parking wars, but Whitman’s status at the Pentagon makes this incident especially odd.
Bryan Whitman, a long-time and highly visible public affairs official and retired Army officer, was removed, at least temporarily, from his job in the prestigious E Ring in at the Pentagon.
Whitman is a member of the senior executive service (SES), considered to be the civilian equivalent of a general officer in the military. They’re supposed to provide deep institutional knowledge and continuity, including during administration changes.
In 2010, he was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.
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In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Whitman organized a “boot camp” for reporters planning to embed with US troops.
