After numerous security breaches and firings of Secret Service agents, the White House scurried to hire new officers to fill their roles and in the process forgot to verify who it was hiring.
Some of those new hires were placed in sensitive roles requiring top-secret clearance, though they lacked the proper credentials, NBC News reported.
Around 50 agents were working in areas that needed the special clearance before they had completed the required background check and polygraph tests.
A Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary told The Washington Post Tuesday the agency put its administrative staff into overdrive to get the agents the necessary security clearance and that the process will be completed by the end of the week.
“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,” Leary told the Post.
The rush to hire new agents started in October after former Secret Service Director Julia Pierson resigned amid multiple security lapses, one of which saw a man with a knife make it all the way into the East Room of the White House.
In early March, two high-level Secret Service agents were arrested after they drunkenly plowed their car into security barricades at the White House after a long night of drinking and driving.
Later, in April, a toddler was also able to bypass White House security through a gate on the lawn and made his way on to the property.
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