Secret Service Director James Murray is delaying a planned retirement as the agency deals with continuing controversies related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Murray informed agency employees Thursday about the decision to postpone his retirement, which had been announced as effective Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reports. “I feel strongly about using this time to oversee and ensure our agency’s continued cooperation, responsiveness, and full support with respect to ongoing Congressional and other inquiries,” Murray wrote. “Doing so is critically important and I am especially grateful for the extra time to help lead our Service ever forward.” Murray had planned to take on the post of chief security official at social-media company Snap Inc., the parent of Snapchat, on Aug. 1. Murray said he was briefly delaying his transition to the private sector and the selection process for the next director was under way. When Murray announced his retirement in early July, Secret Service and White House officials said his planned departure wasn’t related to Jan. 6. In late June, Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to then-President Trump’s last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, testified she was told that Trump wanted to be driven to the Capitol that day and wrestled for the vehicle's steering wheel with the Secret Service when his order was refused. Another controversy erupted when the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, of which the Secret Service is a part, accused the agency of erasing many text messages from the day of the Capitol attack and the previous day. Murray had been looking to retire since spring, after 27 years with the agency. Current and former Secret Service officials pushed back on any suggestion that his legacy has been tarnished, crediting him with leading the agency through a series of challenges including the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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