Douglas Scott Johnson

James Scott, a Secret Service special agent assigned to the vice presidential protective division, learns of the second plane crash at the World Trade Center and realizes this is a terrorist attack, but reportedly makes no attempt to evacuate Vice President Dick Cheney from his White House office at this time. Scott is the “on-duty shift whip” for Cheney’s Secret Service detail. He has seen the TV coverage of the first crash in New York and contacted Secret Service agents who are members of the “working shift” protecting Cheney to alert them to the incident (see (Shortly After 8:48 a.m.) September 11, 2001). After Flight 175 crashes into the WTC at 9:03 a.m. (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001), Scott confers with the on-duty supervisor who is with him. This is apparently Assistant Special Agent in Charge Scott Johnson. The two men are now “[c]ertain that the airplane crashes were terrorist activities,” they will later recall. They therefore discuss “emergency contingency plans and a heightened security alert.” [United States Secret Service, 10/1/2001] However, Scott will only head to the West Wing of the White House and join the shift agents there at around 9:30 a.m. (see (9:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001). And, he will say, he only evacuates Cheney from his office in the West Wing some time after that, apparently around 9:36 a.m. (see (9:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [United States Secret Service, 10/1/2001; United States Secret Service, 11/17/2001 ]