News Digest

U.S. Secret Service director resigns after string of security breaches

U.S. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson, appointed to fix the embattled agency in the wake of a scandal in which agents consorted with prostitutes in Colombia, has resigned, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced Wednesday. Pierson “offered her resignation, and I accepted it,” Johnson said in a statement. “I salute her 30 years of distinguished service to the Secret Service and the Nation.” She was the agency’s first woman director.

Over the last several days, we’ve seen recent and accumulating reports raising questions about the performance of the agency. The president concluded that new leadership of that agency was required.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest

Johnson said he had appointed retired Secret Service agent Joseph Clancy, former head of the Presidential Protective Division of the Secret Service, to lead the agency. Pierson has been with the agency for 30 years. White House press secretary Josh Earnest praised Clancy as the right choice, stressing that he has the “full confidence of the president and the first lady.” The secretary also said a panel of experts should look into the Sept. 19 incident in which a man armed with a knife scaled the White House fence and got deep into the presidential mansion before being stopped.