The near-miss assassination attempt on Donald Trump is the latest in a string of scandals surrounding the Secret Service.
Secret Service Slip-ups
Since the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, the duty of the Secret Service has been to protect presidents – and later vice presidents and major presidential candidates – from harm. Over that time the agency has seen its fair share of controversy and failure, most recently for failing to protect former President Donald Trump from a shooter who opened fire on him from roughly 150 meters away during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
But even before the attempted assassination of Trump, the Secret Service has made headlines for the wrong reasons. Here’s a list of the biggest scandals the Secret Service has faced over the last two decades, at home and abroad.
2003: Press Plane Intruder
In the summer of 2003, a man boarded a plane in South Africa for reporters covering President George W. Bush’s visit to several African nations by claiming to be a correspondent. The plane carried Secret Service members, White House staff and reporters. The man boarded without a passport and after he was discovered without a credential, he claimed he lost it while covering Bush’s visit to Botswana. He was arrested after the plane landed in Uganda after a White House aide alerted the Secret Service to his presence on the plane.
But even before the attempted assassination of Trump, the Secret Service has made headlines for the wrong reasons. Here’s a list of the biggest scandals the Secret Service has faced over the last two decades, at home and abroad.
2005: Grenade in Georgia
While President George W. Bush was speaking in Tbilisi, Georgia, during a 2005 trip abroad, a man threw a live grenade at him from the crowd. The perpetrator had pulled the pin on the grenade, which landed just 61 feet from Bush but had malfunctioned. The grenade was recovered by a Georgian security officer, but neither Bush nor Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili were informed of the incident until the day afterward. The culprit – who said he was hoping to kill Bush – initially evaded capture but officers acting on a tip tracked him to an apartment where he opened fire, killing a Georgian police officer. He was arrested and sentenced to life in prison for the attack on the president and the killing of a police officer.
2009: Salahis Dinner Crashers
A White House state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in November 2009, featured some uninvited guests. Michelle and Tariq Salahi, Washington socialites and aspiring reality TV stars, attended the event followed by television cameras – mingling with the then-Vice President Joe Biden and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel – despite not being on the White House’s tightly controlled guest list. An investigation found that Secret Service officers had admitted the couple to the event assuming their names would be checked against the guest list at the next checkpoint, which was a breach of security protocol. Three Secret Service employees were put on administrative leave afterward.
2011: White House Sniper
Seven shots hit the White House in November 2011 when Sasha Obama and Marian Robinson, the then-president’s daughter and mother-in-law, were in the residence. The Secret Service initially failed to respond to the incident, first saying no shots were fired and blaming construction noise. Then officers blamed gang violence saying shots had been fired in a gunfight between cars near the White House. It took four days for agents to discover shots had hit the White House. The Secret Service implemented new security measures, including the installation of additional surveillance cameras, as a result.
2012: Colombia Presidential Visit with Prostitutes
During President Barack Obama’s 2012 visit to Colombia for the Summit of the Americas, agents accompanying him, including those in the Secret Service, brought prostitutes into their hotel rooms, a Washington Post investigation found. The Post later discovered that a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s advance team had brought a prostitute to his hotel room in Colombia a week before the agents had, which the Secret Service had evidence of but ignored. Ten Secret Service agents ultimately lost their jobs due to the incident.
2014: Knife-Wielding Intruder
In September 2014, a knife-wielding intruder jumped the White House fence and entered the White House. The intruder made it as far as the East Room, where he was ultimately stopped. Findings from The Washington Post later revealed Secret Service agents saw the intruder but did not trigger alarms in the White House to inform other agents because of complaints from staff that the alarms would malfunction and unnecessarily go off. A surveillance team outside also did not notice the intruder. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson resigned as a result of the incident and other controversies.
2015: Crashing the Gates
In March 2015, while the White House was in a heightened security state investigating a suspicious package left nearby, two high-ranking Secret Service agents crashed a car on the building’s grounds. It was later determined by the Homeland Security inspector general that they were likely drunk: Their tab from a bar visit beforehand included multiple drinks and agents who encountered them at the scene of the crash deemed their behavior “not right.” One of the two officers implicated – an agent whose responsibility included “all aspects of White House security” – later retired because of the incident. The other agent was put on administrative leave.
2017: White House Fence Jumper
In March 2017, a man climbed over a fence onto the White House grounds. The intruder – who had two cans of pepper spray and a note for President Donald Trump on him – remained on the front lawn of the building for 17 minutes, even though he had tripped several security sensors in the process. Officials said afterward that Secret Service officers had ignored alarms, and the incident led to the firing of two agents.
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