Former Comcast Exec Gets Permanent Secret Service Job

Joseph Clancy had been serving as agency's interim director.

In this July 10, 2009 file photo, Secret Service Agent Joseph Clancy, right, holds the door open for President Barack Obama upon arrival at the Vatican for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson resigned Wednesday, a day after bitingly critical questioning by Congress about a White House security breach. There had been increasing calls for her departure during the day. Pierson will be replaced by Clancy, a former special agent in charge of the president's protective detail who retired in 2011.

In this July 10, 2009 file photo, Secret Service Agent Joseph Clancy, right, holds the door open for President Barack Obama upon arrival at the Vatican for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. 

Joseph Clancy, the Comcast executive plucked by President Obama to be interim director of the Secret Service in the wake of some notable security breaches, has been picked to take the job on a permanent basis.

“White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest noted last fall when Mr. Clancy was named interim chief that Mr. Clancy is trusted by both the president and first lady Michelle Obama, who were said to be livid about the White House security breaches,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Mr. Clancy was the head of the agency’s Presidential Protective Division until 2011, when he left the government for a job in corporate security at Comcast Corp. In his last Secret Service post, Mr. Clancy traveled alongside Mr. Obama in his personal detail.”

In October, Philly Mag noted Clancy’s long Philadelphia history: “Before getting into the presidential protection business, Clancy was, among other things, the director of national special security events for Homeland Security and a history teacher at Father Judge in Philadelphia. He graduated from Villanova.”

USA Today reports that Clancy has the support of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who had ordered a high-level review of White House security in the wake of the incidents that brought Clancy back to Washington on an interim basis.

“Ultimately, Joe Clancy struck the right balance of familiarity with the Secret Service and its missions, respect from within the workforce, and a demonstrated determination to make hard choices and foster needed change,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I am confident Joe will continue this management approach.”