Obama appoints Joseph P. Clancy to lead the Secret Service against the wishes of Department of Homeland Security panel
Moscow: The US President Barack Obama has appointed Joseph P. Clancy to lead the Secret Service after he headed the agency on an interim basis for the last four months.
Russian media reported that Clancy permanently replace former Director Julia Pierson against the wishes of Department of Homeland Security panel that suggested a leader from outside the agency.
Russian media highlighted the story on Thursday claiming that former chief Pierson stepped down from the Secret Service in October after just 18 months on the job because she was forced to resign by Congress.
A report released by US Department of Homeland Security stated that the total failure of the Secret Service gave a way to a man with a knife jumped the White House fence and made his way to the North Portico of the building before he was stopped.
Obama named Clancy the interim director of the Secret Service in October after the resignation of Pierson but the Department of Homeland Security panel suggested name of former deputy director of the FBI Sean Joyce to the post.
Clancy served as head of the agency’s presidential protection division until 2011, when he retired and became director of corporate security for Comcast. He was appointed to the position of acting director following the resignation of Julia Pierson on October 1, 2014.
During his work on the presidential protection, he was able to achieve a close bond with President Barack Obama.
Clancy grew up in the Philadelphia area. He graduated from Archbishop Carroll High School in Radnor, Pennsylvania and then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point.
After spending a few years as a history teacher at Father Judge High School in Philadelphia, he joined the Secret Service in Philadelphia in the 1980s. Subsequently, he worked in the New York field office, directing a team of agents that conducted major investigations. He was in charge of security at national special events before joining the president’s protective detail.
