A dog named after a rank
Commander is a German Shepherd, the Biden family’s dog, who arrived at the White House in 2021. What follows is not a judgment about his temperament and not something collected from rumor. It is what a specific federal records release documents, and only that: a Freedom of Information Act response describing three biting incidents involving Secret Service personnel, between October 2022 and July 2023.
The paper trail: FOIA case 20240012
The release traces to a request filed October 5, 2023, by researcher John Greenewald of the transparency group The Black Vault. The Secret Service issued its final response on February 20, 2024: 272 pages, 23.4MB. The contents are incident reports, an internal email from a Presidential Protection Division Assistant Special Agent in Charge asking the detail who had been bitten, and a compiled tracking list recording date, location on the body, and treatment. That is what the release is. It is paperwork built to track exposure and follow-up care, not a case file that ends in a finding.
Three dates, three incidents
On October 2, 2022, an agent holding open a door near the Palm Room and West Colonnade was bitten on the left forearm. The agent’s report states that Commander circled back, grabbed the arm, and stood up to the agent’s height, all before the President entered the room.
On June 15, 2023, an agent was bitten on the left arm after Commander reportedly ran at speed and lunged. The wound required stitches. Blood on the floor near the Booksellers area was serious enough that East Wing tours were halted for about 20 minutes while staff cleaned up.
In July 2023, a third agent sustained what the documents describe as a “severe deep open wound,” with significant blood loss, treated with six stitches and a course of antibiotics.
Each account is reported exactly as the file records it. Nothing is added for effect, and none of it needs to be.
What the medics found, and what wasn’t said
The only formal finding anywhere in the release concerns the first incident. White House Medical Staff examined the October 2022 agent and found no puncture wounds. That single sentence is as close as the document gets to a conclusion.
Beyond that note, and beyond the email asking agents to come forward, there is no investigative finding, no disciplinary outcome, no judgment on responsibility. The ordinary explanation covers this well: agencies keep injury logs for medical follow-up and liability tracking, not to produce a verdict. A compiled bite list is exactly the kind of document a legal or medical office generates as routine, whether or not anyone later closes the file with a conclusion.
The number that isn’t there
The Secret Service’s own list is built to record victims by date, location, and treatment, but the pages released to The Black Vault describe only the three incidents above in any detail. How many names sit on the full list is not stated anywhere in the document.
Separate litigation, a Judicial Watch lawsuit distinct from this FOIA case, produced other counts over time: at least 10 incidents as of July 2023, later reporting of at least 11, and eventually at least 24 between October 2022 and July 2023, before Commander was removed from the White House campus. These figures come from different document sets released at different points, not from one register anyone has reconciled. The Black Vault release itself simply does not say how many people appear on its own list. That is a gap in the paperwork, not a withheld number.
The video that exists but wasn’t sent
Footage of the June 15, 2023 incident is referenced in the release as existing. It was not included among the 272 pages. Greenewald has filed a FOIA appeal to obtain it, and as of this response, no outcome is recorded. The document establishes that the video was withheld. It does not establish why. No exemption or reasoning appears in the pages released, so none is claimed here.
No mention of the dog’s fate
Nowhere in the release is there a reference to restricting, retraining, or removing Commander following any of the three incidents. The documents simply stop short of the subject. That silence runs both ways: nothing here confirms action was taken, and nothing confirms it wasn’t.
What happens next, if anything does
The Black Vault has said it will publish the outcome of its video appeal once one exists. Beyond that, no press office, White House spokesperson, or Secret Service representative appears on record commenting on this specific release. For a document that has circulated this widely, the record of anyone responding to it is close to empty.
The shape of an unfinished file
What this release hands a reader is three dated incidents, one medical note that found nothing, a video acknowledged and withheld, a victim list of unstated length, and no conclusion. Anyone who spends time with FOIA releases will recognize the shape: most of them stop exactly like this, closed out for administrative reasons rather than narrative ones. That is not, on its own, a reason for suspicion. It is where the record, as released on February 20, 2024, comes to a stop.