Johnson praised Clancy and the Secret Service as a whole Monday for the agency’s work to protect both the pope during his six-day tour of the United States and global leaders who were in New York for the United Nations General Assembly and asked reporters to take note of the successes.
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The Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog is reopening his investigation into efforts by the Secret Service to discredit a congressman who was investigating the agency.
However, in a statement to the Washington Post on October. 1, Clancy said that after the inspector general’s report was released, he recalled becoming aware on March 25 of a “speculative rumor” that Chaffetz had applied to the service and had been rejected.
The decision to reopen comes after Secret Service Director Joe Clancy said Friday he now has a different recollection of the events in question. But last week, Mr. Clancy said he wanted to revise his account and now remembers that a top deputy told him about it earlier. Clancy said he did not know that agents had accessed Chaffetzs file until April 1.Roth said his investigators will now conducted additional interviews and take other investigative steps before issuing an addendum to the report.
Chaffetz’s application record suggests he did not get the job because other better qualified candidates existed.
He announced Sunday he would seek the house speaker post.
A White House spokesman said last week that Johnson and Clancy have apologized to Chaffetz and that appropriate steps will be taken to hold the people responsible for the leak accountable. “It’s scary to think about all the possible dangers in having your personal information exposed”.
Forty agents, including multiple supervisors, looked at the application within a week. “I remain undeterred in conducting proper and rigorous oversight”.
Yet Mr. Clancy had to know the Chaffetz information could only have been obtained by violating the Privacy Act. Secret Service rules of behavior list penalties for unauthorized access that include a letter of reprimand, loss pay of up to 14 days and possible criminal prosecutorial action.
Infuriated that the agents looked into Chaffetz’s application, Sen. The fact that anyone in Secret Service management would push to leak confidential agency information to punish a critic who is trying to reform the agency is shocking enough.
“This episode reflects extremely poor judgment and a lack of care on the part of a number of Secret Service employees”, Roth said.
“This is sensitive information that we’re talking about”, Earnest said.
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The Secret Service has faced public embarrassments over several breaches of professional duty and sexual scandals by its staff.
