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Former US Secret Service Director Julia Pierson testifies before a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

US Secret Service chief quits over security breaches

Protection agency head makes 'painful' decision after series of embarrassing security blunders

AP

The director of the US Secret Service, Julia Pierson, has abruptly resigned in the face of multiple revelations of security breaches, bumbling in her agency and rapidly eroding confidence that US President Barack Obama and his family were being kept safe.

Once highly respected for its professionalism, the Secret Service, which protects the president, his family, the vice-president and former presidents, has been trying to rehabilitate its image since a 2012 prostitution scandal erupted during a presidential visit to Colombia.

That trust was shaken by a series of failures in the agency's critical job of protecting the president, including a breach on September 19, when a knife-carrying man climbed over the White House fence and made it deep into the executive mansion before being stopped.

Obama had "concluded new leadership of that agency was required", said White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Wednesday.

A White House official said the final straw was the revelation that Obama was never briefed about an incident in which he rode in a lift with an armed security contractor during a visit to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta just days before the White House breach.

Although Pierson offered her resignation as Secret Service director without being asked, Obama had already told aides he thought she should go, the official said, adding that nobody put up any resistance when she offered to step down.

High-ranking lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties had urged Pierson to step down after her poorly received testimony to Congress a day earlier - and revelation of yet another security problem: Obama had shared a life in Atlanta last month with an armed guard who was not authorised to be around him.

That appeared to be the last straw that removed what trust there still was in her leadership. Earnest said Obama and his staff did not learn about that breach until just before it was made public in news reports on Tuesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Joseph Clancy, former head of the Presidential Protective Division, would come out of retirement to lead the Secret Service temporarily.

Republicans quickly served notice that Pierson's resignation and an inquiry ordered by Johnson would not end their investigation.

"Problems at the Secret Service pre-date Ms Pierson's tenure as director, and her resignation certainly does not resolve them," said Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

In an interview with Bloomberg after her resignation was announced, Pierson said: "It's painful to leave as the agency is reeling from a significant security breach. Congress has lost confidence in my ability to run the agency.

"The media has made it clear that this is what they expected."

The man accused of running into the White House on September 19, Omar Gonzalez, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in a brief appearance in federal court.

He is accused of unlawfully entering a restricted building while carrying a deadly weapon, which is a federal charge, and two violations of District of Columbia law - carrying a dangerous weapon outside a home or business and unlawful possession of ammunition.

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: US Secret Service director resigns
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