Secret Service protection for Donald Trump is different than for other ex-presidents

Donald Trump’s legal woes have shed new light on the role of the federal agent tasked with protecting him and other former presidents throughout their lives: the US Secret Service.

It was there, accompanying the 45th president as he walked into a Manhattan courthouse earlier this month to be fingerprinted and indicted on 34 felony charges.

Meanwhile, current and former officers assigned to Trump as part of another investigation of the former president, reportedly have to testify in Washington, DC, grand jury as part of the investigation into secret documents seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

All of this, along with other potential cases, including his involvement with the January 6 riots, and allegations of meddling in the 2020 election in Georgia, at least increases the likelihood that Trump could be convicted, and possibly jailed.

CBC News looks at the role of the US Secret Service in protecting former presidents, Trump’s challenge, and whether they would accompany him if sent to prison.

When does protection for the president begin?

Although the U.S. Secret Service was founded in 1865 — created to combat counterfeiting of U.S. currency after the Civil War, according to the Secret Service website — it began protecting presidents in 1901 after the assassination of president William McKinley in Buffalo, NY

The protections for sitting presidents, which are still in place today and cannot be denied, also apply to their spouses and their families.

But in 1958, the Former President’s Act was passed which, starting in 1965, will provide lifetime protection for former presidents, their spouses and children, up to the age of 15. remarried).

However, there have been some tweaks over the years.

Although the adult children of the president are supposed to lose their protective detail when the president leaves office, both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have signed a directive authorizing the Secret Service to provide a longer period of protection for their children, according to CBS News.

What did the Secret Service do for the former president?

The Secret Service’s responsibility to protect the former president at all times means, “they will oversee and directly coordinate all levels of security wherever they are.” [they] go,” said Tim Miller, a former Secret Service agent.

But the level of security “is all based on whatever the Secret Service, through its intelligence and coordination capabilities, is fit to protect,” Miller said.

As for the number of agents assigned to the former president, it really depends on the potential threat and how long he has been out of office.

“Even former presidents can be targets of terrorists,” said Ronald Kessler, the author Inside the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Agents in the Line of Fire and the President Who Protects Him.

“They can hold them hostage for example.”

Kessler said that when George W. Bush left office, the threat level was around 75 officers protecting him and his wife Laura to cover shifts around the clock.

“Usually with a former president who has recently left office, there will be four agents with him when he leaves,” he said.

“Then, of course, it’s 24 hours a day protection. So you have three shifts and a day off. And so it adds up in terms of agents.”

Although the security detail may be less intense once the president has left office, there are still ongoing checks in public areas that need to be opened.

“If they’re going to go to a restaurant, they’re going to go in first and check employees and do background checks to see if anyone has a conviction for violence,” Kessler said. “Well, if you are going to a convention or something like that, you must check the convention hall. They’ll have bomb-sniffing dogs running around.”

Is lifetime coverage suspended?

Yes, during the Clinton administration in 1994, in an effort to reduce costs, the US Congress changed the age protection of former presidents to only 10 years.

“It just felt unnecessary, that the former president wouldn’t have been a target,” Kessler said.

But with the Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012, Barack Obama reinstated lifetime protection.

“The world has changed dramatically since the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” said Republican Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas during the House debate on the bill, according to a CBS News report at the time.

“We need to ensure that the safety and security of our former chief executive is not at risk,” Smith said.

Not everyone agrees. North Carolina Republican Rep. Howard Coble said that the former president could carve out a pretty lucrative career and should pay for his own security.

Has any president denied protection?

Although current officeholders cannot refuse Secret Service protection, former presidents have that option.

In 1985, former president Richard Nixon repealed lifetime protection, reportedly to save government money. He then hired his own personal bodyguard.

That made him the first ex-president, and now only to revoke Secret Service protection.

How is the protection for Trump different from other former presidents?

Trump, said Miller, has been an outlier in the history of the Secret Service because he is not only a former president, but a current presidential candidate. (Presidential candidates are also given protection).

“[That] it’s going to add some different dynamics because they’re going to go from site to site to site,” he said.

“You look at George W. Bush, he went to the ranch, his father went to Kennebunkport, and they lived relatively obscure from that point,” Miller. “Not so with former president Trump.”

As for his role when Trump is impeached, “the service could be there every step of the way,” Miller said.

“You don’t allow anyone to assume that [protection] from Secret Service protection other than the Secret Service.”

So what if Trump goes to jail?

Several news stories have raised questions about whether Trump will be accompanied by some Secret Service details if he is incarcerated.

“If he goes to jail, he’s always outside of the cell block guarding him,” Kessler said. “Because otherwise there’s no point. There’s no point in going out in the corridor or anywhere else.”

In a column for ABC News, former Secret Service agent Donald J. Mihalek said the question of how the protection will work if the former president to go to jail has a clear answer.

“Simply, the law dictates and the Secret Service must provide protection, even in jail, because only the protected can end it,” he wrote.

But Miller said it would be “very problematic” for the Secret Service and create many challenges.

“And frankly, I don’t think there’s going to be a scenario where he’s going to be put in jail with anybody else,” he said. “It’s going to be a problem on the spectrum.”