'Uncharted territory': Trump’s Secret Service detail may follow him to prison if convicted

23 April 2024

If former President Donald Trump is convicted of crimes and sentenced to prison, it's likely his permanent Secret Service detail would follow him to the cell block.

Since 1965, the U.S. Secret Service has been required by statute to protect all former presidents of the United States and their spouses for life, unless they decline protection. This means that Trump could theoretically have his personal security team with him — even if he's an inmate.

According to a Tuesday New York Times report, the logistics of incarcerating a former president are already being discussed now that his first criminal trial is officially underway. The topic of how Trump's Secret Service protection would operate in a prison environment initially emerged after this week's gag order hearing in Judge Juan Merchan's courtroom.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team of prosecutors have argued that Trump should be fined $1,000 for each instance of him allegedly violating Merchan's gag order. They also stressed that the gag order — which was meant to prohibit Trump from attacking trial witnesses, court staff and their families — could also be enforced by incarceration of up to 30 days should financial penalties prove ineffective (prosecutors did not call for Trump to be jailed over the current alleged violations).

The Times' William K. Rashbaum delved into what the jailing of a former U.S. president could look like, in the event of future gag order violations or a criminal conviction. He wrote that incarcerating Trump "would involve keeping him separate from other inmates, as well as screening his food and other personal items." And for the duration of the former president's sentence, his "detail of agents would work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, rotating in and out of the facility." Rashbaum added that "while firearms are obviously strictly prohibited in prisons, the agents would nonetheless be armed."

"Obviously, it’s uncharted territory," former New York and Pennsylvania corrections official Martin F. Horn told the Times. "Certainly no state prison system has had to deal with this before, and no federal prison has had to either."

And according to other corrections officials, there are wings of prisons in New York that are either fully or partially closed, and that Trump and his Secret Service detail would likely be given a vacant wing of the prison in order to properly safeguard him.

The ongoing criminal proceedings in New York are just the first of Trump's four criminal trials, and the New York trial is expected to conclude in roughly four to six weeks. Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, which prosecutors argue were done to cover up illegal campaign contributions.

If Trump is convicted in New York, he would be unable to pardon himself as president, or have his appointed attorney general dismiss the charges as he could do for federal charges if he wins a second term this November. Because his other three trials have yet to be assigned a date, it's possible the Manhattan trial could be the only one that yields a verdict prior to Election Day.

Jurors will not return to court on Wednesday in observance of the Jewish Passover holiday, but the trial is expected to resume on Thursday morning.

Click here to read the Times' full report (subscription required).

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