A member of the Secret Service Police looks toward the West Wing of the White House in Washington on June 9, 2015, during an evacuation of the media area of the White House due to a bomb threat. No bomb was found.(Photo: Carolyn Kaster, AP)
Several Secret Service agents newly assigned to the White House may be literally rubbing elbows with President Obama before obtaining proper security clearance, according to published reports.
Dozens of agents have been posted in sensitive positions without completing the required national security clearance process,
The Washington Postreports, citing government officials.
The
Post said Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy discussed the issue with Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C.. Meadows had contacted Clancy privately after hearing from a whistleblower who expressed concern that new officers had been present for White House meetings involving classified material, Meadows told the
Post.
The
Post said four or five dozen agents lacked proper security clearance last week, although not all were assigned to the White House. Secret Service officials blamed a backlog of clearance investigations and said less than a dozen clearances remain to be approved.
Agency spokesman Brian Leary issued a statement saying Clancy learned of a security clearance issue last week.
"The director has taken immediate steps to accelerate the Top Secret adjudication process and has allocated additional resources to ensure that this is completed as quickly as possible," the statement said.
Most security checks on the new agents, including a criminal history review and polygraph testing, had already been completed, the statement said, adding that clearances were expected to be completed by week's end.
The statement did not mention the White House, but NBC News also cited officials as saying White House security agents were among those without proper clearance.
The scramble to bolster White House security began in September when a man scaled a White House fence, breached the mansion's front door, overpowered an agent and roamed the main floor before being apprehended.
The breach was one in a string of agency missteps that led to the Oct. 1 resignation of the former Secret Service director Julia Pierson.
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