XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: billsteele@gays-stink.ca   
      
   WASHINGTON—The head of the Secret Service resigned under   
   pressure Wednesday after a series of embarrassing stumbles that   
   outraged lawmakers, caught the White House by surprise and   
   called into question the security of the president.   
      
   Julia Pierson's resignation marks the end of a swift fall for a   
   Secret Service chief who assumed the job just 18 months ago and   
   was hoping to restore prestige and discipline to an agency   
   grappling with a slew of disconcerting scandals. Instead,   
   another hit: An armed intruder last month scaled a White House   
   fence and darted deep into the executive mansion.   
      
   The next director will face the same deep-seated problems that   
   felled Ms. Pierson, including low morale among officers and   
   claims by some of a cowboy culture. The agency also has a   
   divided mission that some say has shifted resources from basic   
   protection to cybercrime and financial-fraud investigations.   
      
   The resignation presages the likely shake-up of an agency that   
   has long operated with a large degree of independence. Homeland   
   Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday took an internal   
   investigation into the Sept. 19 White House intrusion from the   
   Secret Service and handed it to his deputy, Alejandro Mayorkas.   
      
   Mr. Johnson also said a panel of independent experts would look   
   at the breach "and related issues concerning the Secret   
   Service," and he made it a point to say the panel would evaluate   
   potential directors from outside of the Secret Service. The   
   appointment of an outsider would mark a radical departure from   
   the way the agency has been led for decades. Ms. Pierson, 55   
   years old, had been at the Secret Service for 30 years when she   
   took over last year.   
      
   For now, the Obama administration is putting control of the   
   agency in the hands of Joseph Clancy, who knows President Barack   
   Obama well from his time heading the Secret Service unit that   
   protects the first family.   
      
   Mr. Clancy has been the chief of security at Comcast Corp. since   
   retiring from the Secret Service unit in 2011. He was considered   
   for the top job in 2013 when its previous director retired, but   
   he took his name out of the running, according to a person   
   familiar with the matter.   
      
   Ms. Pierson had come under increasing pressure from both   
   Republican and Democratic lawmakers to resign amid a series of   
   security flubs revealed in the days following the White House   
   intrusion and after her three-hour-plus grilling on Capitol Hill   
   Tuesday failed to convince lawmakers of the Secret Service's   
   ability to protect the president.   
      
   The final straw for the White House was the disclosure Tuesday   
   afternoon by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah) that an armed guard   
   with a criminal record rode on an elevator with Mr. Obama during   
   a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last   
   month, in violation of Secret Service protocol.   
      
   White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House learned   
   of the CDC incident on Tuesday, "just minutes before it was   
   publicly reported," and added that it was part of what convinced   
   Mr. Obama to accept Ms. Pierson's resignation.   
      
   "Over the last several days, we've seen recent and accumulating   
   reports raising questions about the performance of the agency,   
   and the president concluded that new leadership of that agency   
   was required," Mr. Earnest said at his daily White House   
   briefing.   
      
   Mr. Chaffetz, who chairs a House subcommittee that oversees the   
   Secret Service, called for Ms. Pierson's resignation Tuesday   
   night, and by Wednesday morning, Democrats including Rep. Elijah   
   Cummings of Maryland and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York were   
   also urging her removal. Mr. Chaffetz praised her resignation in   
   a statement and said the administration should pick a new leader   
   "from outside the Secret Service for a fresh start."   
      
   Ms. Pierson told a congressional committee Tuesday that on the   
   evening of Sept. 19, an intruder ran through part of the White   
   House, briefly setting foot in the East Room, where Mr. Obama   
   often hosts events and which is located off a stairway that   
   leads to the first family's residence. Omar J. Gonzalez, who had   
   a small knife in his pocket, was able to enter the White House   
   after scaling the fence, darting across the lawn, knocking back   
   an officer and entering the executive mansion through two   
   unlocked doors before being apprehended outside the Green Room,   
   Ms. Pierson said.   
      
   Initially, the agency had indicated the intruder had been   
   captured just inside the North Portico doors, when Mr. Gonzalez   
   had, in fact, gotten much farther inside the White House. First   
   lady Michelle Obama was outraged when she learned about how far   
   the intruder had penetrated, according to a person familiar with   
   the matter. The first family wasn't home at the time.   
      
   On Wednesday, Mr. Gonzalez pleaded not guilty to three criminal   
   charges, including unlawfully entering a restricted building or   
   grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon. The charges   
   carry a statutory maximum of 16 years in prison. Mr. Gonzalez   
   waived his right to a detention hearing, agreeing to stay in   
   federal custody pending a trial.   
      
   Ms. Pierson, who offered her resignation to Mr. Johnson on   
   Wednesday, was the subject of unrelenting criticism from   
   lawmakers Tuesday—something that likely contributed to her   
   departure. "It was a very physically and emotionally difficult   
   time," said former Secret Service Director Ralph Basham, who   
   appeared with Ms. Pierson before the congressional committee. "I   
   believe she felt that the focus was starting to turn toward her   
   versus getting on with the investigation of what happened on the   
   19th and at the CDC."   
      
   The questioning came before the revelation, earlier reported by   
   the Washington Examiner, of Mr. Obama's elevator ride with the   
   armed private security guard. Mr. Chaffetz said in an interview   
   that the Secret Service became suspicious of the man when he   
   disobeyed demands to stop filming Mr. Obama with his phone.   
      
   The Secret Service, with 6,700 employees and a $1.6 billion   
   annual budget, was founded in 1865 as a unit of the Treasury   
   Department aimed at fighting counterfeiting. It wasn't until   
   1902, after the assassination of President William McKinley,   
   that Congress gave it the responsibility for full-time   
   protection of the president, and that mission later grew to   
   include other dignitaries and their families. It was one of   
   several agencies that became part of the Department of Homeland   
   Security in 2003.   
      
   Ms. Pierson had been examining changes to the agency's hiring   
   and firing practices since an embarrassing 2012 incident that   
   involved 12 employees soliciting prostitutes in Cartagena,   
   Colombia, preparing for a meeting Mr. Obama was to attend,   
   before a presidential visit to the region. Ms. Pierson had   
   discussed with lawmakers legislative changes that would have   
   made it easier to fire special agents and hire executives, they   
   haven't been formally proposed. She was also looking at   
   increasing the level of qualifications required to become a   
      
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