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Julia Pierson resigns as Secret Service director Julia Pierson resigns as Secret Service director
(35 minutes later)
The director of the Secret Service resigned Wednesday after a series of security gaffes. Julia Pierson, the director of the Secret Service, resigned Wednesday following a series of security lapses by her agency, including a recent incident in which a man with a gun was allowed on an elevator with President Obama.
Support for Julia Pierson rapidly declined on Capitol Hill just hours after a congressional hearing where she avoided answering direct questions and gave conflicting accounts of an incident in which a man jumped the White House fence and ran inside the executive residence. Obama “concluded new leadership of the agency was needed based on recent and accumulating accounts” of performance problems within her agency, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a news briefing.
“I salute her 30 years of distinguished service to the Secret Service and the Nation,” Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said in a prepared statement. Pierson’s departure from her post came just 24 hours after a congressional oversight hearing about a growing number of security breaches. She appeared evasive, gave conflicting accounts of a recent incident involving a man who jumped over the White House and got deep inside the building, and said she learned some things about her agency by reading accounts in the Washington Post.
That growing list of security failures, many first reported in the Washington Post, had put the president and his daughters in potential danger. Some of the details of the lapses, including the service’s fumbled response to a 2011 shooting at the White House, were unknown to Congress and the president before they were reported .
In the 2011 shooting, the Secret Service failed to properly identity an attack on the White House and to interview its own officers, who felt sure the executive mansion had been hit by gunfire. As a result, a man who said he wanted to “stop the president” was on the loose for four days, until a housekeeper found bullets on the Truman balcony.
“It had to happen,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said of Pierson’s departure. “She lost the confidence of the men and women in the Secret Service. The situation was getting worse not better. She wasn’t candid with Congress nor was she sharing vital details with the president.”
Earnest confirmed Wednesday a Post report that Pierson had not briefed the president on a serious security breakdown involving his personal safety earlier this month. A security contractor with a gun and a criminal history had somehow been able to avoid required screening and had boarded an elevator with Obama during his visit to Atlanta.
Support for Pierson rapidly declined on Capitol Hill just hours after the congressional hearing.
Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that he had accepted her resignation. “I salute her 30 years of distinguished service to the Secret Service and the Nation,” he said.
Johnson appointed as interim acting director Joseph Clancy, former agent in charge of the presidential protective division who retired in 2011.Johnson appointed as interim acting director Joseph Clancy, former agent in charge of the presidential protective division who retired in 2011.
Johnson said he appreciated Clancy’s willingess to quickly leave his job and “return to public service for a while.” Johnson said he appreciated Clancy’s willingness to quickly leave his job and “return to public service for a while.”
Former Secret Service Director Ralph Basham said he spoke with Pierson on Tuesday night after both of them had participated in the lengthy House Oversight Committee hearing that day, during which lawmakers grilled Pierson on the agency’s operational errors. Asked if she had considered resigning at that point, Basham said in a phone interview: “How could you not think about it? Can you imagine—it was like a feeding frenzy. A lot of red meat. It was very difficult physically and emotionally, and it takes a toll on you. She obviously went through a very difficult day.”
Basham said that the revelation late Tuesday that an armed contractor with a criminal record had come within inches of Obama in an elevator during a presidential trip to Atlanta last week helped convince the White House that “Julie had become the focus point.”
“It was becoming a distraction in terms of getting on with the investigation and doing the fact-finding,” Basham said. He added that Clancy, who had been working in security in the private sector, was a good choice to take over as acting director because he combines outside experience with his Secret Service tenure.
David Nakamura contributed to this story.