Several dozen freshly recruited Secret Service agents were posted at sensitive locations, including the White House, without completing a national security clearance process, an official told The Washington Post.
The newspaper spoke to a Secret Service official who said that four dozen to five dozen officers lacked the required clearances before the issue was brought to the attention of Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy last week.
Of those, a little more than a dozen were posted at the White House, the official told the Post. As of Tuesday, the number of officers without clearances was down to 10, the newspaper added.
The Secret Service faced intense scrutiny and rushed to hire more officers following a high-profile incident in September when a man jumped the White House fence, ran across the lawn and deep inside the complex.
A string of stories illuminating security lapses at the White House followed, prompting lawmakers to call for additional security protections at the compound.
The Post noted that Secret Service agents are sometimes present for meetings, including at the White House, during which classified information is discussed. Part of their employment process includes getting a top-secret security clearance, but a spokesman declined to tell the newspaper the types of information they might have accessed.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told the newspaper he reached out to Clancy after hearing from a whistleblower. Clancy acknowledged the lack of clearances in a private conversation last week.
“Without the clearance, you could share information by mistake,” Meadows told the Post. “I trust everyone on my staff, but there are only a few with a top-secret clearance. They know the zero tolerance that any of us have for inappropriately sharing this information.”