Secret Service director Joseph Clancy has changed his account of the events leading up to the leaking of Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s personal information.
Clancy says he now recalls knowing about the Chaffetz leak prior to being told last March of the imminent publishing of a Washington Post article breaking the story. Originally, he said that story is how he first learned about it.
Chaffetz is the chair of the congressional committee currently investigating Secret Service misconduct, and it was illicitly disclosed to the media that he had previously been rejected for a job at the agency.
The Post reported that Clancy now says he became aware of a “speculative rumor” about a 2003 Chaffetz application as early as March 25.
“It was not until later that I became aware that this rumor had developed as agency employees had used an agency database to gain access to this information,” he said.
Chaffetz believes that this new story from Clancy is indicative of department inaction and possible malfeasance.
“It wasn’t as if the director made any effort to squelch this at the time. He knew about it the day after the hearing. There’s no evidence that he did anything about it,” Chaffetz said.
Chaffetz was referring to a March 24 House Oversight Committee meeting where Chaffetz was particularly critical of Clancy. Minutes later, Chaffetz’s file was accessed by someone at Secret Service, according to an Inspector General report released earlier this week.
