For Immediate Release
DHS Press Office
Contact: 202-282-8010
Today I am announcing the panelists who will serve on the Department of Homeland Security’s independent review of the U.S. Secret Service. I have full confidence that these distinguished individuals will conduct a fair, thorough and unbiased assessment.
The panelists are: Tom Perrelli, former Associate Attorney General, Mark Filip, former Deputy Attorney General, Danielle Gray, former Cabinet Secretary and Assistant to the President, and Joseph Hagin, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations.
On Oct. 1, 2014, I announced that Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, aided by the Department’s General Counsel, would assume control and direction of the ongoing inquiry by the U.S. Secret Service of the fence-jumping incident at the White House on Sept. 19. Deputy Secretary Mayorkas will complete that review and submit findings to me by Nov. 1, 2014.
By Dec. 15, 2014, the panel will submit to me its own assessment and recommendations concerning security of the White House compound. The security of the White House compound will be the panel’s primary and immediate priority.
The panel is also invited to submit to me recommendations for potential new directors of the Secret Service. I am also requesting that the panel advise me about whether it believes, given the series of recent events, there should be a review of broader issues concerning the Secret Service.
I thank the panelists for agreeing to accept this important assignment.
Tom Perrelli
Thomas J. Perrelli is a nationally recognized litigator who is the chair of Jenner & Block’s Government Controversies and Public Policy Litigation practice group. In 2009, he was nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to the position of Associate Attorney General of the United States, the third highest-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Justice. In that capacity from 2009 to 2012, Mr. Perrelli was responsible for the Department’s Civil, Antitrust, Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, and Tax Divisions, the United States Trustee Program, the Office of Justice Programs and the Office on Violence Against Women, among others. Mr. Perrelli began practicing law as an associate at Jenner & Block in 1992. He left the Firm in 1997 to serve as counsel to then - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, rising to the position of Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department’s Civil Division before returning to Jenner & Block in 2001. Over the next eight years, he concentrated his practice in copyright, media and constitutional litigation and served as Managing Partner of the firm’s D.C. office.
Mark Filip
Mark Filip is a partner in Kirkland's Chicago and Washington, D.C. offices. At Kirkland, Mr. Filip leads the Firm's government enforcement defense and internal investigations group, and he serves as one of 15 members of the Firm's worldwide management committee. Filip has been repeatedly recognized as one of America’s leading attorneys. Prior to joining Kirkland, Mr. Filip was at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served as Deputy Attorney General of the United States after being unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. As Deputy Attorney General, Mr. Filip was second-in-command of the Justice Department and oversaw all of its criminal and civil enforcement efforts. Mr. Filip also served as Acting Attorney General for the new administration after January 20, 2009, until Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, was confirmed. Prior to serving as Deputy Attorney General, Mark spent four years as a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois after being confirmed 96-0 by the U.S. Senate. Filip previously served as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court and to Judge Stephen Williams of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Danielle Gray
Danielle Gray is a litigation partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, a position she has held since 2014. Ms. Gray recently served as Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary at the White House from 2013 to 2014. She was Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy from 2011 to 2013. Ms. Gray was Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division in the Department of Justice from 2010 to 2011. From 2009 to 2010, she was Associate Counsel to the President at the White House. Prior to joining the Administration, Ms. Gray served as Deputy Policy Director for Obama for America from 2007 to 2008. From 2004 to 2005 and from 2006 to 2007, she practiced law in Washington, D.C. and New York. Ms. Gray served as a law clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court from 2005 to 2006 and for Judge Merrick B. Garland on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 2003 to 2004. In 2014, she was selected as a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and was named a Lecturer of Law at Harvard Law School. Ms. Gray received an A.B. in Economics and Public Policy from Duke University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Joe Hagin
Joe Hagin is a partner at Command Consulting Group in Washington DC. Mr. Hagin served in senior management positions at the White House for 14 years, over the course of three Presidential administrations, and has held executive positions with several major U.S. corporations. Most recently, Mr. Hagin served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations from January 2001 to August 2008. In that position he was responsible for managing the overall administrative, security, and military support structure surrounding the President of the United States, as well as the day to day management of White House operations and the White House Complex. Mr. Hagin led the extensive, post-September 11th effort to reorganize and modernize the structure and methodology for modern day Presidential support and was one of the principals responsible for planning the formation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He also chaired the Enduring Constitutional Government Coordinating Council (ECGCC), the inter- agency planning team responsible for upgrades in executive branch Continuity of Government and Continuity of Operations (COOP) programs, plans, and exercises.
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