Ronald Kessler - The First Family Detail

“No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character,” John Morley, the British statesman, said.

Regardless of the character flaws they may see, Secret Service agents are sworn to protect the president at risk to their own lives. FBI agents tend to admire Secret Service agents more than they do any other law enforcement officers. As former FBI director Mueller has told me, the Secret Service’s mission of preventing a criminal act is “far harder than investigating one after it takes place.”

“The Secret Service attracts a lot of people who have a code of ethics that entails self-sacrifice,” Norm Jarvis, a former USSS special agent in charge, says. “These are people who are willing to sacrifice their own lives, not in a conscious way, but based on their training and culture. When they hear a gunshot, they go to an instinct mode to save the president’s life.”

“I think that deep down inside every agent’s heart, he or she would probably imagine himself or herself being the one who could take a bullet for the president and would be so honored to be that guy,” a current agent says. “I would love to be the agent who did that, and I think most of the agents that I know would feel that way. It’s out of our own sense of personal pride and dignity.”

If agents often feel underappreciated and abused, there are compensations. Former agent Patrick Sullivan recalls returning to Washington on Air Force One after four reelection campaign stops across the country for President George H. W. Bush.

“It was ten o’clock at night when we’re all sitting on Air Force One on our way back,” Sullivan says. “We were complaining about the long day, and our shift leader looked at us and said, ‘You know, those people who got their picture taken with him paid some ungodly amount of money just to stand next to him and get their picture taken. Do you know what they’d pay to be in that seat that you’re in right now?’”

Brave and dedicated though they are, Secret Service agents’ management has let them down, risking an assassination.

“We don’t have enough people or the equipment to do protection the way they advertise they do,” a veteran agent says. “And how we have not had an incident up to this point is truly amazing—a miracle.”

1865: The Secret Service Division is created on July 5 in Washington, D.C., to suppress counterfeit currency. Chief William P. Wood is sworn in by Treasury Secretary Hugh McCulloch.

1867: Secret Service responsibilities are broadened to include “detecting persons perpetrating frauds against the government.” The Secret Service begins investigating the Ku Klux Klan, nonconforming distillers, smugglers, mail robbers, perpetrators of land fraud, and other violators of federal laws.

1870: Secret Service headquarters relocates to New York City.

1874: Secret Service headquarters returns to Washington, D.C.

1875: The first commission book and a new badge are issued to operatives.

1877: Congress passes an act prohibiting the counterfeiting of any coin or gold or silver bar.

1883: The Secret Service is officially acknowledged as a distinct organization within the Treasury Department.

1894: The Secret Service begins informal, part-time protection of President Grover Cleveland.

1901: Congress informally requests Secret Service protection of presidents following the assassination of President William McKinley.

1902: The Secret Service assumes full-time responsibility for protection of the president. Two operatives are assigned to the White House detail.

1906: Congress passes the Sundry Civil Expenses Act for 1907, providing funds for Secret Service protection of the president. Secret Service operatives begin to investigate western land frauds.

1908: The Secret Service begins protecting the president-elect. President Theodore Roosevelt transfers some Secret Service agents to the Department of Justice, forming the nucleus of what is now the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

1913: Congress authorizes permanent protection of the president and the president-elect.

1915: President Woodrow Wilson directs the secretary of the treasury to have the Secret Service investigate espionage in the United States.

1917: Congress authorizes permanent protection of the president’s immediate family and makes it a federal criminal violation to direct threats toward the president.

1922: The White House Police Force is created at the request of President Warren Harding.

1930: The White House Police Force is placed under the supervision of the Secret Service.

1951: Congress enacts legislation that permanently authorizes Secret Service protection of the president, his immediate family, the president-elect, and the vice president if he requests it.

1961: Congress authorizes protection of former presidents for a reasonable period of time.

1962: Congress expands protection to include the vice president, the vice president–elect, and the next officer in line to succeed the president. Under current law, their immediate families receive protection as well. Such protection may not be declined.

1965: Congress makes assassinating a president a federal crime. It authorizes the protection of former presidents and their spouses for life and of their children until age sixteen.

1968: As a result of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, Congress authorizes protection of major presidential and vice presidential candidates and nominees. Congress also authorizes protection of widows of presidents until death or remarriage.

1970: The White House Police Force is renamed the Executive Protective Service and given increased responsibilities, including protection of diplomatic missions in the Washington area.

1971: Congress authorizes Secret Service protection for visiting heads of foreign states or governments, and other official guests, as directed by the president.

1975: The duties of the Executive Protective Service are expanded to include protection of foreign diplomatic missions located throughout the United States and its territories.

1977: The Executive Protective Service is renamed the Secret Service Uniformed Division.

1984: Congress enacts legislation making the fraudulent use of credit and debit cards a federal violation. The law authorizes the Secret Service to investigate violations relating to credit and debit card fraud, federally related computer fraud, and fraudulent identification documents.

1986: The Treasury Police Force is merged into the Secret Service Uniformed Division. A presidential directive authorizes protection of the accompanying spouse of the head of a foreign state or government.

1990: The Secret Service receives concurrent jurisdiction with Department of Justice law enforcement personnel to conduct any kind of investigation, civil or criminal, related to federally insured financial institutions.

1994: The 1994 Crime Bill is passed, providing that any person manufacturing, trafficking in, or possessing counterfeit U.S. currency abroad may be prosecuted as though the activity occurred within the United States.

1998: Broadening the jurisdiction of the Secret Service and other federal law enforcement agencies, the Telemarketing Fraud Prevention Act allows for criminal forfeiture of the proceeds of fraud. The Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act establishes the offense of identity theft. Penalties are established for anyone who knowingly transfers or uses, without authority, any means of identification of another person with the intent to commit an unlawful activity.

2000: The Presidential Threat Protection Act authorizes the Secret Service to participate in the planning, coordination, and implementation of security operations at special events of national significance as determined by the president. These events are called national special security events.