Secret Service Chief Wasn't Told About Misconduct Allegations

U.S. Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy said it’s unacceptable that it took five days for him to learn of allegations of misconduct involving two agents.

Clancy said he told his senior staff he expects to be notified about matters such as the March 4 incident involving two possibly intoxicated agents allegedly hitting a White House barricade with a car.

“If it is determined that any one of our employees concealed information about this alleged incident, they will be held accountable,” Clancy said in testimony prepared for delivery Thursday to a Senate appropriations subcommittee. “It undermines my leadership and I won’t stand for it.”

The episode, under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, follows a series of lapses by agents that brought new leadership to the agency, along with scrutiny from lawmakers.

Clancy was appointed by President Barack Obama in February to become the permanent head of the Secret Service after its previous director, Julia Pierson, resigned. That followed security breaches, including an intruder scaling the White House north fence and running through the front door of the executive mansion.

In the incident this month, Clancy said surveillance video shows a vehicle entering the White House complex at 1 to 2 miles per hour and pushing aside a plastic barrel. He said he’s “extremely concerned by the allegations of misconduct and the potential for alcohol involvement.”

Clancy took issue with some media reports that characterized contact with the orange barrier by the agents’ vehicle as a crash.

“There was no crash,” he said in his prepared remarks. “There was no damage to the vehicle.”

Clancy said at a House hearing on March 17 that he initially learned of the incident from an anonymous e-mail, prompting him to ask his staff to find out what happened.