Too Secret? The Secret Service’s Long, Troubling History of Omerta

Before the text messages’ convenient disappearance, the agency also trashed records related to the JFK assassination

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President Donald J. Trump speaks to members of the United States Secret Service Uniformed Division Thursday, June 4, 2020, in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House. Photo credit: © SMG via ZUMA Wire

The conduct of the Secret Service during the January 6 Capitol attack was highly confusing, but the ongoing kerfuffle over its erratic behavior elides one consistent fact: Our modern-day Praetorian Guard has long been a problematic institution.

As I wrote last week, although the Secret Service’s actions around the JFK assassination were most egregiously suspect, the history of our elected officials’ bodyguards is riddled with scandal and incompetence. Despite this, the agency itself — with its more than $2 billion annual budget — has never been seriously investigated or called out for its failings. And it’s naive to believe that the ongoing and widening text message scandal will change this sad status quo.