Secret Service agents say 'inadequate training' could lead to 'potential insider threats'

09 May 2024

A White House reporter is claiming that Secret Service agents are quietly circulating a petition to address concerns they say pose a risk to national security.

According to a Thursday tweet from Bloomberg political reporter Jennifer Jacobs, agents are sounding the alarm over what they describe as "a number of recent Secret Service incidents indicative of inadequate training." The petition also warns that a lack of quality training makes the agency vulnerable to "potential insider threats," and that there are currently 39 signatures in support of a congressional investigation.

Jacobs did not elaborate on what "insider threats" agents are specifically concerned about, and the petition has not yet been publicly shared. However, the petition could be another sign of instability within the agency that could pose a risk to President Joe Biden's safety.

Since former President Donald Trump left office, there have been several concerns raised about the Secret Service — particularly in relation to the January 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. In 2022, the National Archives requested information about claims that texts from phones of Secret Service agents working on Trump's presidential detail were surreptitiously deleted. Record keepers specifically asked "details of all agency actions taken to salvage, retrieve, or reconstruct the records," and the agency pledged "full cooperation" in the probe.

Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith — who indicted Trump on four counts relating to January 6 — has also looked into the deleted text messages. He managed to obtain agents' phones via subpoena, only to find that the devices "did not contain any recoverable information." Conservative commentator and author Julie Kelly opined in 2023 that the fact that the texts could be be recovered was "insane."

"No one can possibly believe this given the invasive tools the [U.S. government] has and has used in this investigation," she tweeted.

And prior to the 2022 hearings convened by the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) said he was particularly worried about former Vice President Mike Pence's refusal to get into a limousine driven by Secret Service agents. At the time, Pence said he was "not getting in the car" when asked to do so, which Raskin said were “the six most chilling words of this entire thing I’ve seen so far.”

And of course, Commander Biden — the president's dog — has bitten Secret Service agents at least 24 times, according to a February report by CNN. In a June 2023 email, an unnamed Secret Service assistant urged agents to "please give us lots of room" in an internal document, citing the frequent attacks by the German Shepherd.

"The recent dog bites have challenged us to adjust our operational tactics when Commander is present," the document read, adding that agents "must be creative to ensure our own personal safety."

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Gugliemi said the dog bites were treated as "workplace injuries" and that all were documented "in accordance with Secret Service and US Department of Homeland Security guidelines."

“While Secret Service personnel neither handle nor care for the first family’s pets, we work continuously with all applicable entities in order to minimize any adverse impacts from family pets,” he said.

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