Search for Secret Service Leader Intensifies as White House Security Is Tested -<br />By NICHOLAS FANDOSMARCH 22, 2017<br />WASHINGTON — In the century or so since Congress first assigned the Secret Service the task of protecting<br />the president of the United States, its top job has always gone to an agency veteran.<br />“The U. S. Secret Service is a vital federal law enforcement partner<br />and the White House is working closely with Secretary Kelly on filling this important position,” Michael Short, a White House spokesman, said on Tuesday.<br />“If you are going to turn the security and safety of your family over to someone, the president needs to weigh in.”<br />John F. Kelly, the secretary of Homeland Security, whose department includes the Secret Service, will also have a say in the decision.<br />Patrick O’Carroll, a former Secret Service agent who is the executive director of the Federal<br />Law Enforcement Officers Association, said Mr. Clancy’s successor would have a daunting task.<br />Aides to President Trump are narrowing a list of candidates to lead the Secret Service, the beleaguered agency<br />that protects the country’s top government officials and investigates certain crimes.<br />Critics of the agency have seized on the most recent cases to amplify calls for the White House to recruit a leader<br />from outside the Secret Service, which would be unprecedented in the famously hidebound agency’s modern history.
