White House confident in Secret Service handling of Chaffetz leak scandal

by Jordan Fabian - 10/01/15 2:06 PM ET

President Obama is confident Secret Service officials will be held “accountable” for revealing secret information to discredit a Republican critic of the agency, the White House said Thursday.

“The president certainly has confidence the appropriate steps will be taken” to hold those responsible for the leak accountable, press secretary Josh Earnest said, adding that the reports “raise significant concerns.”

{mosads}Earnest noted that Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson both called Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) to apologize.

Asked whether Obama has lost confidence in the agency’s leadership, Earnest said, “Not at all.

“I think their initial response to this report is an indication there is strong leadership in place at the Secret Service,” he said.

The dirt-digging incident is the latest in a string of controversies this year, which have marred the reputation of the Secret Service.

The agency’s assistant director urged officials to release the personnel file of Chaffetz after the congressman made critical comments about the Secret Service, according to an inspector general report released Wednesday.

Chaffetz, who chairs House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, applied to be a Secret Service agent in 2003 but was rejected. Personnel files are required by law to be kept private.

Obama on Tuesday heaped praise on the Secret Service for “flawlessly” managing security during a busy week that included presidential meetings with dozens of foreign leaders, including Pope Francis.

“I wanted to make a special commendation of our Secret Service,” he said. “When something goes wrong, when there’s a fence jumper, everybody reports on it.”

Earnest on Thursday echoed Obama’s praise for the agency’s performance.

– Updated at 2:23 p.m.

Tags Jason Chaffetz Josh Earnest United States Secret Service