Officials: Newly hired White House Secret Service agents lack security clearances

WASHINGTON, June 10 (UPI) -- In the rush to add additional Secret Service agents to the White House security detail, dozens of new recruits have been posted without completed background checks, government officials said.

Up to five dozen newly minted agents have been posted to sensitive positions without completing the national security clearance process. Secret Service Director Joseph P. Clancy acknowledged the problem last week in a conversation with Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). Meadows raised the issue after hearing a newly hired officer was present for a White House meeting where classified information was shared, The Washington Post reported.

The Secret Service said there is an "administrative backlog" in issuing security clearances with the large number of new hires. Officials said the background checks will be completed by Friday. As a condition of employment, all Secret Service agents and officers must submit to background checks and a lie-detector tests and must obtain top-secret clearance. Agents are frequently privy to classified meetings and discussions.

"The director has taken immediate steps to accelerate the top-secret adjudication process and has allocated additional resources to ensure that this is completed as quickly as possible," Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said in a statement.

The recruitment push began in the wake of back-to-back security breaches at the White House that began in September, when a man armed with a knife jumped the White House fence and raced into the East Room before being tackled by an off-duty agent. Three days later, an armed security contractor with a criminal record got into an Atlanta elevator with President Obama and refused to stop recording cellphone video.

In October, Julia Pierson resigned as Secret Service director after a year and a half on the job, in the wake of the security lapses. Joseph Clancy was appointed as her replacement earlier this year.