Lawmakers, critics and agents all want Donald Trump to name a new Secret Service director from outside the agency, but fear the president is looking within to tap a successor to Joseph Clancy, the Washington Examiner reported.
"The 'cover-up culture' remains a serious problem," Ron Kessler, who has written several books on the Secret Service, told the Examiner. "They need an outsider to truly fix the agency. I would really be amazed if they took someone from the inside, but stranger things have happened."
Clancy stabilized an agency rife with security and protocol breaches as well as low morale, and Kessler and others believe an outsider is best to continue the cleanup and enforce accountability.
"I didn't get a sense of where (Trump) stands, but I know he's aware of the issues," Kessler told the Examiner, saying he has talked with the president about it.
The leading candidates, according to the Examiner, are all current or former Secret Service officials:
- Rob Buster, assistant director of protective operations.
- George Mulligan, chief operating officer.
- William Callahan, deputy director.
- Larry Cockell, former deputy director.
Buster is reportedly the leading candidate, but he has two major black marks on his record, the Examiner reported.
Joe Hagin, Trump's deputy chief of staff for security, was part of an independent panel that found the agency "starving for leadership" in a 2015 report that, in part, called on then-President Barack Obama to name a director from outside the agency to replace the ousted Julia Pierson, the Examiner reported.
Obama instead tapped Clancy, who announced his retirement in mid-February. The agency has not divulged who's running the Secret Service on an interim basis.
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