Murray spent 27 years in the Secret Service and was promoted to director in April 2019. He will join a technology company as head of global security after his retirement, a source told CNN.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden thanked Murray for his service in a statement Thursday, saying he “has led a long and distinguished career in federal and military service for three decades.”
“Jim embodies the meaning of service above himself and protected the families of American presidents as if they were part of his own. We are incredibly grateful for his service to our country and our family,” Bidens said.
The move comes when the agency has been suddenly put in the spotlight by an alleged incident between a Secret Service agent and Trump on January 6, 2021 and the role of Tony Ornato, who had temporarily taken over a detail in the House White at the time. as deputy chief of staff to Trump’s operations cabinet. Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, told the House select committee last month that Ornato, now the agency’s deputy director of training, told him Trump was outraged when he learned that his leader, Bobby Engel, would not take him to the U.S. Capitol. Instead, they returned to the White House after Trump’s speech at the Ellipse that preceded the Capitol riot.
Neither Engel nor Ornato have publicly commented on Hutchinson’s testimony. A Secret Service official previously told CNN that Engel denied that Trump grabbed the steering wheel or threw himself at an agent, and that Ornato denied telling Hutchinson the same. The official did not argue that Trump ordered his agents to take him to the Capitol.
A source tells CNN that Murray’s retirement has been in the works for several months and is unrelated to recent testimony or the House committee’s investigation.
CNN’s Shawna Mizelle and Sam Fossum contributed to this report.