Joe Clancy, the longtime agent President Barack Obama named to reform a troubled Secret Service, will appear before lawmakers on Tuesday to face questions over the latest episode at the White House. Two top-ranking officials were suspended following the March 4 incident, which involved a late-night disruption at a White House command post during an investigation of a possible bomb.
Clancy, who once headed up Obama’s own personal protection detail, will appear before the House Appropriations Committee Tuesday morning in a hearing on his agency’s budget. But questions about the mishap, and broader inquiries into the culture and management at the Secret Service, are expected.
Clancy will also meet privately with top lawmakers who sit on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the panel that’s pressed the Secret Service to explain past incidents, including the September fence-jumping that cost then- Director Julia Pierson her job.
One month after naming Clancy as Pierson’s replacement, Obama maintains full confidence in the agency boss, according to White House officials. As the man once directly responsible for keeping Obama and his family safe, Clancy is deeply trusted by both the President and the first lady.
But his appointment as Secret Service director prompted dismay from some lawmakers, who had encouraged Obama to follow the guidance of an independent review panel that suggested an outsider assume control of the agency amid repeated embarrassments and scandals.
Those black eyes date back three years, when a dozen agents were accused of bringing prostitutes back to their hotel rooms during a summit in Colombia. Months later, an agent was found passed out drunk in his hotel room in the Netherlands after a night out in Amsterdam.
Now, similar accusations of drunken impropriety are again being raised, though the details of what happened earlier this month near the White House are in dispute.
Originally reported by The Washington Post, the incident involved two highly placed Secret Service officials steering their government-issued vehicle into a security barricade at a White House checkpoint after celebrating a colleague’s retirement at a Washington bar.
While the Post reported the officials drove through an ongoing investigation into a suspicious package, law enforcement officials later told CNN the two men merely drove to the edge of the scene.
The original report also indicated the two men appeared intoxicated at the time, according to witnesses, who added that uniformed officers wanted to conduct sobriety tests on the pair, but were overruled by supervisors.
However, two law enforcement sources told CNN that no one has corroborated the kerfuffle over testing the agents for drunken driving — speculation they said may have emerged after the fact.
“There is a sense now that that might not be true,” one of the sources said.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House oversight panel, said he expected his committee would interview the two uniformed officers who were on the scene that night. Depending on what the committee learns, there could be a separate public hearing later this month on the incident.
Lawmakers also want to know when Clancy learned of the incident. Some reports have suggested the Secret Service director was only informed about what transpired five days after it happened.