Clancy, making his third appearance before a congressional committee in two weeks, acknowledged under intense questions from lawmakers that he did not directly ask his senior managers for details about the incident. Clancy, who had previously said that he did not learn about the allegations until March 9, said Tuesday he had intended to await the findings of an inquiry by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general before deciding on possible discipline. “In my mind, I gave this to the IG,” he said. “I was content to wait.”
Secret Service Director Joseph P. Clancy testifies before a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing examining recent and long-standing problems at the Secret Service.
But Democrats and Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee complained to Clancy that, while he didn’t know what happened, he was standing in their way of finding out. They criticized his decision not to allow key agency supervisors on duty the night of March 4 to come to the hearing to answer questions. Members said the lack of testimony from his supervisors, combined with Clancy’s acknowledgment last week that much of the surveillance video taken on the night of the incident had been recorded over, was making it difficult for Congress to scrutinize the seriousness and security risk of the event.
“This is not just another oversight hearing about just another agency,” said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the committee. “I admire this president greatly. . . . I do not want anything to happen to him under my watch — or under yours.” Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said that Clancy also declined last week to bring the top agent in charge of President Obama’s security detail, Robert Buster, to attend a closed-door briefing on the incident. One of the two agents involved was a top member of the president’s detail. Chaffetz and several members said they also were frustrated that Clancy did not turn over a copy of the limited video footage the Secret Service says it still has from that evening. “By refusing to allow the witnesses we invited to testify — with first-hand knowledge of the incident — Director Clancy is keeping Congress and the American public in the dark,” Chaffetz said. “It is unclear why Director Clancy is choosing at the start of his tenure to be so unhelpful to Congress.”
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