Pa. Native Takes Over Secret Service Operations

By James Boyle:

The Associated Press reports that Havertown native Joseph Clancy has been brought out of retirement to act as interim director of the Secret Service, the decision made hours after Julia Pierson resigned the position amidst high-profile security lapses at the White House and on President Barack Obama’s security detail.

Clancy left the Secret Service three years ago after serving for thirty years and took a job as director of security at Comcast’s headquarters in Philadelphia. The Villanova graduate grew up in Havertown and taught history at Father Judge High School before joining the Secret Service in the 1980s, according to the New York Times.

His selection to lead the Secret Service comes on the heels of embarrassing breaches revealed in the last week. On Sept. 19, a knife-carrying man hopped the fence at the White House and made it as far as the East Room before agents managed to subdue him. The incident brought more scrutiny onto the President’s detail, revealing an incident from earlier in September when Obama shared an elevator at the Center for Disease Control with a private security officer carrying a concealed firearm.

Pierson tendered her resignation to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, following a tense interrogation by the Congressional Oversight Committee Wednesday morning.