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      Kennedy Calls for Secret Service Detail on Anniversary of Father’s Killing

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      On the 56th anniversary of his father’s assassination, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate, again pleaded on Wednesday to be granted Secret Service protection, arguing in an interview on Fox News that he was at an elevated risk of being targeted because of his family history.“I was with my dad when he died in Los Angeles in 1968,” said Mr. Kennedy, who was 14 at the time of the shooting. He then asserted that the White House “is involved in this decision” to deny his requests for Secret Service protection and argued that his campaign was significant enough to deserve that protection.A spokesman for the White House declined to comment.Mr. Kennedy has made requests for Secret Service protection for more than a year, predating his independent candidacy. Last July, when he was still running against President Biden in the Democratic primaries, he said a request for a Secret Service detail had been denied by Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, who has the authority to approve those requests.Mr. Kennedy has since repeatedly made the request, circulating an online petition in support of it, and has been denied each time. In his interview on Wednesday, Mr. Kennedy pointed to several incidents that demonstrated his need for additional security, including break-ins at his home in California and an episode in September in which an armed man was arrested at a campaign event and charged with gun crimes after he tried to meet Mr. Kennedy.Mr. Mayorkas has previously said that he has declined Mr. Kennedy’s requests at the recommendation of a panel of top congressional leaders.“It is ultimately my decision, but I have followed their recommendation each time,” he said in May.Mr. Mayorkas can consider several factors in determining who should receive protection, and those criteria give preferential treatment to major-party candidates. Before Nikki Haley ended her Republican presidential campaign, the congressional panel recommended that she receive Secret Service protection, in part for her strength in national polling. The Secret Service also notes that “some candidates have received protection earlier in the campaign pursuant to presidential memoranda.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      G.O.P. and Secret Service Clash Again Over Convention Protest Zone

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      The Republican National Committee, alarmed by what it sees as a significantly worsening security threat, asked on Thursday that the director of the Secret Service personally intervene and grant a request to move a designated protest zone farther away from convention participants in Milwaukee this summer.Republicans have demanded for nearly a month that the Secret Service push back the protesters from the convention site. Now, seven weeks before the start of the convention on July 15, a letter from Todd R. Steggerda, a counsel to the R.N.C., has raised the stakes.“Your failure to act now to prevent these unnecessary and certain risks will imperil tens of thousands of convention attendees, inexcusably forcing them into close proximity to the currently planned First Amendment Zone,” Mr. Steggerda wrote to Kimberly A. Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, referring to a designated protest site at Pere Marquette Park, a small public park on the bank of the Milwaukee River, about a quarter-mile from the arena hosting the convention.In his letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Steggerda cited “an increased and untenable risk of violence” from a “rapidly deteriorating security environment,” and demanded that Ms. Cheatle intervene. The Secret Service is tasked with leading security for both major-party conventions this summer.The Republican Party has previously argued that, in the current plan, those attending the convention will be forced to pass by the protesters on their way into the venue, increasing the opportunity for confrontation.The Secret Service responded in a lengthy statement to Mr. Steggerda’s letter, saying that officials had held “multiple meetings” with the R.N.C. chairman, convention staff and concerned senators, but that the agency was “confident in the security plan being developed.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Driver Dies After Crashing Into Barrier Near the White House

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      The Secret Service said the incident posed no threat to the public, and President Biden was in Delaware at the time of the crash.A driver died after crashing into a security barrier near the White House on Saturday night around 10:30, prompting an investigation by the Washington police department, the Secret Service said in a statement.“There is no threat or public safety implications,” Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman, wrote on social media, adding that the crash posed no threat to the White House. The city’s police department said it was investigating the crash “only as a traffic crash,” but the Secret Service said it would conduct a separate investigation into the driver’s background.President Biden was at his home in Wilmington, Del., at the time of the crash, having arrived there on Friday evening.The crash occurred on the eastern perimeters of the White House, near the intersection of 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, a six-lane boulevard that connects the White House and the U.S. Capitol, the Washington police said. The police arrived at the scene about 15 minutes after the crash and pronounced the driver, an adult male, dead.Some images of the incident from WJLA in Washington showed a heavily damaged silver sedan crashed a few feet into the outermost White House barricade that instructs drivers entering the premises to stop.In January, the police took a driver into custody after a vehicle crashed into a security barrier at the same intersection. And last May, a 19-year-old man crashed a rented U-Haul truck into White House security barriers. He told the authorities that he had been planning to kill Mr. Biden, who was at the White House at the time.In December, a Delaware man who the authorities said was driving while intoxicated crashed into Mr. Biden’s motorcade while the president was talking with reporters on the street in downtown Wilmington. That crash was considered accidental, and no one was injured. More

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      Trump Acknowledges He Wanted to Go to the Capitol on Jan. 6

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      Former President Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that he asked his Secret Service detail to take him to the Capitol after his speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, acknowledging a key detail of his actions that were central to the findings of the House committee established to investigate the attack.During a campaign rally in Waukesha, Wis., Mr. Trump brought up a sensational but disputed element of testimony given to the House Jan. 6 committee by a Trump White House aide: that Mr. Trump had lunged for the wheel and physically struggled with Secret Service agents when they refused to take him to join the large crowd of supporters who were marching toward the Capitol.“I sat in the back,” Mr. Trump said, giving his version of events. “And you know what I did say? I said, ‘I’d like to go down there because I see a lot of people walking down.’ They said, ‘Sir, it’s better if you don’t.’ I said, ‘Well, I’d like to.’”“It’s better if you don’t,” Mr. Trump recounted an agent saying. The former president said he replied, “All right, whatever you guys think is fine,” and added, “That was the whole tone of the conversation.”President Biden’s campaign immediately highlighted Mr. Trump’s comments, amplifying that the former president had intended to participate in what would become an attack by his supporters on the Capitol in an effort to overturn Mr. Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.It is not the first time that Mr. Trump has spoken of his effort to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6. He has said in several interviews that he regretted not marching on the Capitol with his supporters that day, and that his Secret Service detail prevented him from doing so.“Secret Service said I couldn’t go,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post in April 2022. “I would have gone there in a minute.”Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide, later testified to Mr. Trump’s conversation with Secret Service agents during televised hearings held by the House Jan. 6 committee. Ms. Hutchinson was not in the car with Mr. Trump, and said that her testimony to those events came secondhand or thirdhand from what other people had told her that day.In an interview with the same committee, Mr. Trump’s driver, whose name was not disclosed, said: “The president was insistent on going to the Capitol. It was clear to me he wanted to go to the Capitol.”Mr. Trump at the rally on Wednesday portrayed his requests to his Secret Service detail as casual ones.In the interview with investigators for the House panel, the driver said that while he did not see Mr. Trump accost agents or reach for the steering wheel, “what stood out was the irritation in his voice, more than his physical presence.”After Mr. Trump was driven back to the White House by his Secret Service detail, the former president sat and watched the ensuing violence play out on television, according to testimony by an array of former administration officials. After Mr. Trump’s speech at the Ellipse where he repeated his false claims that the election was stolen from him and urged attendees to march on the Capitol, a mob of his supporters overran police barricades to storm the building, temporarily disrupting the certification of Mr. Biden’s victory.In a lengthy interview with Time magazine published on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he would “absolutely” consider pardoning every person who had been convicted on, or pleaded guilty to, charges related to the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. He also would not rule out the possibility of political violence after this year’s election.“I think we’re going to win,” he said. “And if we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.” More

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      Secret Service Had to Adjust Tactics to Avoid Bites From Biden’s Dog

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      Newly released documents recorded at least 24 biting episodes before Commander, the president’s German shepherd, was banished from the White House last fall.The Secret Service had to “adjust our operational tactics” to protect President Biden because the first family’s dog kept biting agents, including one who required six stitches and another whose blood spilled onto the floor of the White House, according to newly released internal emails posted online.The agency recorded at least 24 biting episodes between October 2022 and July 2023 involving Commander, a German shepherd who became the terror of the West Wing, Camp David and the president’s homes in Delaware, about half of which required medical attention, according to the documents. Commander was banished from the White House last fall to an undisclosed location.“The recent dog bites have challenged us to adjust our operational tactics when Commander is present — please give lots of room (staying a terrain feature away if possible),” an assistant special agent in charge of the Presidential Protection Division wrote to the team. “We will continue to keep” a protected person whose code name was blacked out in the document but was clearly Mr. Biden “in our sight but must be creative to ensure our own personal safety.” The agent reported that they were seeking “a better solution soon.”The documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by John Greenewald, a longtime California-based researcher who specializes in unearthing government secrets on everything from U.F.O.s to C.I.A. and military activities, and posted on his website, called The Black Vault. The Secret Service confirmed the documents were authentic.The 273 pages of emails and documents, with names redacted, shed new light on a period that generated great stress inside the White House before Commander, then age 2, was removed from the mansion. A previous presidential dog, Major, was moved out of the White House two years earlier for similar reasons.The cache of emails not only documented various episodes in sometimes graphic detail, but also captured the trauma and concern among Secret Service agents and officers, who shared techniques for the best ways to avoid getting hurt. Secret Service personnel were bitten on the wrist, forearm, elbow, waist, chest, thigh and shoulder. One was saved from injury by his ammunition pouch. Among the documents was a photo of a torn shirt.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in US Politics

      Zandra Flemister, first Black woman in Secret Service, dies aged 71

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      Zandra Flemister, first Black woman in Secret Service, dies aged 71Hailed as ‘a trailblazer’, Flemister experienced widespread racism and discrimination during her tenure at the federal agencyThe first Black woman to have been hired by the US Secret Service, Zandra Flemister, has died at the age of 71, leaving behind as her legacy a rich political career, her fight with Alzheimer’s, and a lawsuit that details the widespread racism and discrimination she suffered during her tenure at the federal agency known for protecting presidents.Flemister, who died Tuesday, was “a trailblazer” and “inspired a future generation of agents,” the Secret Service’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, said in a statement about her death.She started her work at the Secret Service in 1974, four years before her transfer out to the foreign service – which in part protects Americans abroad – in 1978.During her time at the Secret Service, Flemister guarded the families of US presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.“I … wanted to be a trailblazer for other African American women,” she would say later about her Secret Service career. But it’s important to note that statement was contained in an affidavit forming part of a class-action lawsuit that saw more than 100 Black agents and former agents detail a culture of racist discrimination in the Secret Service.Microaggressions, ultimatums and hostile verbal comments against her peppered her experience at the Secret Service.A fellow agent once referred to her as a “prisoner” while they were on duty, making her feel “embarrassed and humiliated”, according to a detailed obituary of Flemister in the Washington Post.The Post recounted how her supervisor told her she would have to abandon her afro-style haircut if she wanted to be promoted. And even after Flemister followed the supervisor’s advice, she felt disrespected and as though she was put on “exhibition”.Once, a colleague put a gorilla’s picture on Flemister’s identification.Beyond her own experience, she also described witnessing anti-Black racism from her colleagues. While working with the presidents of Senegal and Grenada during their visit to the US, Flemister heard her white colleagues use the N-word in reference to the leaders of the nations, which respectively are in Africa and the Caribbean.Her career blossomed after she transferred to the foreign service. She would go on to become the supervisory consul general in Pakistan, and after that she earned selection to the senior foreign service in 2006.About then, unbeknownst to her, the Alzheimer’s with which she contended was setting in.By 2010, her symptoms were serious enough that she had to request retirement at the relatively early age of 59.Long before her retirement, Flemister fought for her rights as well as those of others in the Secret Service who had been victims of racism. A lawsuit filed in 2000 alleged racial discrimination within the agency, and she wrote that she saw it loud and clear during her time that she would not be “allowed to have a successful career in the Secret Service” because of her race.“My requests for transfers to career-enhancing squads [were] consistently denied, my credibility and competency constantly questioned, and [there was] the common use of racial epithets in my presence,” she wrote.Her bout with Alzheimer’s eventually became severe enough that it left her unable to follow through the course of the lawsuit.Flemister’s husband of 42 years, John Collinge, told the Post that she died due to a respiratory failure that was related to her Alzheimer’s disease. Survivors also include her son, Samuel Collinge.TopicsSecret ServiceUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Secret Service took phones from 24 agents involved in January 6 response – report

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      Secret Service took phones from 24 agents involved in January 6 response – reportPhones reportedly confiscated amid criminal investigation about missing text messages from January 5 and 6 US Secret Service leaders confiscated cellphones from 24 agents involved in the response to the Capitol attack amid a criminal investigation about missing text messages from 5 and 6 January 2021, according to a new report.Citing “two sources with knowledge of the action”, NBC News said the phones were handed to Joseph Cuffari, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, in late July or early August, shortly after Cuffari launched an investigation requested by the National Archives.Hurricane Ian barrels towards Florida as officials warn of looming catastrophe – liveRead more“One source familiar with the Secret Service decision to comply with Cuffari’s request said some agents were upset their leaders were quick to confiscate the phones without their input,” NBC reported. “But given that the phones belong to the agency … the agents had little say in the matter.”The Secret Service did not immediately comment. Cuffari’s office said it would not confirm or comment on the investigation.In July, Cuffari told Congress Secret Service text messages from 5 January 2021, the day before Trump supporters attacked the Capitol, and 6 January had been erased despite an oversight request.The resulting tussle between the Trump-appointed official and the House January 6 committee and made dramatic headlines.Investigators have since secured access to chats and emails between agents on security details for Donald Trump and Mike Pence.The committee is seeking to establish how the Secret Service moved Trump and his vice-president – and why – as the Capitol attack unfolded.Testimony has described how Trump struggled with one member of his security detail, as he was moved to the White House instead of going to the Capitol with his supporters.The committee has also been told how Pence’s detail moved him through the Capitol as rioters broke in with some chanting “Hang Mike Pence” as a gallows was erected outside.An unnamed security official said: “The members of the VP detail were starting to fear for their own lives. There was a lot of yelling. There were a lot of very personal calls over the radio … there were calls to say goodbye to family members … for whatever reason it was on the ground, the VP detail thought this was about to get very ugly.“… It sounds like we came very close to either Service having to use lethal options or worse.”In July, referring to controversy over the missing texts and friction between the House committee and Secret Service officials, the presidential historian Michael Beschloss tweeted: “For all of those … agents who seem to love and venerate Trump, look at how he did nothing to defend Mike Pence’s agents on January 6 as they called their frightened families to say goodbye forever.”The rioters were attempting to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election victory, a process overseen by the vice-president. Pence reportedly resisted Secret Service attempts to remove him from the Capitol.In their book I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker of the Washington Post said Pence refused to get into a car.A Pence aide, Keith Kellogg, reportedly told Tony Ornato, the head of Trump’s detail who became deputy White House chief of staff, Pence had “a job to do” and was going to stay at the Capitol “if he has to wait there all night”.Pence ultimately presided over the certification in the small hours of 7 January.TopicsSecret ServiceUS politicsDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More

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      Top Secret Service official at heart of January 6 Trump row steps down

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      Top Secret Service official at heart of January 6 Trump row steps downTony Ornato, who reportedly told aide Trump lunged for steering wheel as Capitol attack was starting, was key figure to committee Top US Secret Service official Tony Ornato, who has become a figure of intense interest to the congressional committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack, has retired from the agency.Ornato was thrust into the center of the January 6 furor as an eyewitness to some of the most critical incidents involving Donald Trump in the hours leading up to the deadly assault on the US Capitol.He began as head of Trump’s Secret Service detail but in an unprecedented move in December 2019 became deputy chief of staff in the White House.Biden to take on Republicans over gun control, crime and attacks on FBI – liveRead moreIn that capacity, he was drawn into the sights of the January 6 committee in its investigation of Trump’s role in inciting the Capitol insurrection. A former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, in June testified publicly to the committee that Ornato had told her Trump had become “irate” when his security detail refused to drive him to the Capitol as the assault on Congress was beginning.The attack aimed to prevent the congressional certification of Trump’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.When his Secret Service driver insisted it was not safe to go, Trump lunged for the steering wheel and then grabbed the agent’s throat, Hutchinson testified Ornato had told her. Ornato reportedly denied the account through unnamed sources.Hutchinson also revealed to the committee that Ornato had briefed top White House aides on January 6 itself that weapons were being carried among the crowd at the Capitol, including guns, knives and spears. Ornato has not denied that allegation.On Monday, he confirmed that he had retired from the Secret Service, saying in a statement that he wanted to work in the private sector. He has already been interviewed twice by the January 6 committee, though the contents of his testimony have not been made public.Among the areas of interest that the committee is likely to be pursuing is Ornato’s knowledge of how Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence, was handled by Secret Service agents on January 6. As armed rioters were milling through the Capitol, shouting “Hang Mike Pence!”, the vice-president’s security detail tried to persuade him to evacuate the area.“I’m not getting in the car,” Pence told the lead special agent, according to Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig in their book I Alone Can Fix It.At the White House, Ornato, who as deputy chief of staff had oversight over Secret Service decisions, told Pence’s national security adviser, Keith Kellogg, that the vice-president was going to be moved to the Maryland military facility Joint Base Andrews. Had he been evacuated, Pence would no longer have been able to certify Biden’s electoral victory, and Trump’s goal of postponing his defeat would have been fulfilled.When Ornato said that the Secret Service would move Pence, Kellogg was adamant, Rucker and Leonnig reported. “You can’t do that, Tony,” Kellogg said. “Leave him where he’s at. He’s got a job to do. I know you guys too well. You’ll fly him to Alaska if you have a chance. Don’t do it.”TopicsSecret ServiceDonald TrumpUS politicsJanuary 6 hearingsnewsReuse this content More