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Susan Crabtree

@susancrabtree

Oct 16

🚨 🚨 EXCLUSIVE: A WINDOW INTO DEI IN THE SECRET SERVICE - part of a @RCPolitics series of stories on the topic.

After several Secret Service agents went on an all-expense taxpayer-paid trip to the 2023 World LGBTQ+ Conference for Criminal Justice Professionals in Australia in 2023...

ACTION ITEMS ON "BECOMING A TRANS-INCLUSIVE AGENCY" INCLUDED:

-Determining whether physical-fitness standards were having a negative impact on recruiting trans agents.

-Building a private changing area/curtained stall within both male and female lockers rooms to offer privacy for gender non-conforming employees.

⚠️The memo didn't mention the need for privacy for women personnel potentially sharing locker rooms with men transitioning to women or women transitioning to men.

-Using the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's comprehensive guide to support transgender, non-binary, and "two-spirit" employees transitioning in the workplace.

Time to turn on notifications -- I've been working for several weeks on a comprehensive investigation into DEI/lowering of standards at the @SecretService -- a mess current USSS Director Sean Curran inherited from his predecessor Kim Cheatle, who was forced to resign after her disastrous Congressional testimony about the J13 Butler failures.

I'll have a lengthy story filled with more exclusive information either tomorrow morning or in the coming days.

The broad question is whether Curran is doing anything to shake up the old culture and improve recruiting/retention a la @SecofWar Pete Hegseth.

My upcoming comprehensive piece will provide some answers.

Here's a SNEAK PEAK re: the pre-Butler DEI/cultural rot at the agency charged with protecting Pres. Trump.

The Center to Advance Security in America, or CASA, @SecureUSA, pursued several Freedom of Information Act requests for the number of DEI/LGBTQ+ junkets Secret Service leaders and other agents took during the Biden admin.

(Context: Unlike the U.S. military under Hegseth, the Secret Service has not banned trans agents from its ranks. And, in fact, this year has made some physical-fitness accommodations for at least one of them, which I previously reported.)

CASA Director James Fitzpatrick said the response to the FOIA requests show that the Biden Secret Service prioritized "DEI over almost everything."

"They were more worried about whether their agency was becoming 'trans inclusive' and able to decipher the 'gay alphabet' then they were about executing the mission of the Secret Service and keeping high-level government officials and candidates safe," Fitzpatrick said.

"Shortly after this five-person junket to Australia to learn about transgenderism, the Secret Service denied Bobby Kennedy's request for protection for the first time. This is unacceptable and our team will not stop until all of the DEI records of the Biden Secret Service are released to the American people."

Here's just some of the detailed findings:
⬇️⬇️⬇️

For three days in late January and early February 2023, the USSS sent five employees – including Andrew Murphy, the Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Field Office, who is openly gay, to the 2023 World LGBTIQ+ Conference for Criminal Justice Professionals in Melbourne, Australia.

Among the sessions attended by the Secret Service staff were:
•  Understanding Bias Towards Transgender Police and Transgender Homicide Victims
•  Becoming a Trans Inclusive Police Service
•  A Comprehensive Guide to Supporting Transgender, Non-binary and Two-spirit Employees
Transitioning in the Workplace
•  Beyond The Gay Alphabet - Why Understanding The LGBTQIA+ Community's Experience is Crucial to  Effective Modern-Day Policing
•  Modelling Workplace Identities: Negotiating The Risk Of Professional Stigma Within Contemporary  Policing Contexts

The attendees listed several "takeaways" from the conference - among them were:
-Transgender/Gender Non-Conforming Human Resources Guidance
-That they wanted to "incorporate best practices" into USSS HR
-They wanted to create "policy and training" to "provide officers and agents guidance regarding searching/patting-down transgender or gender non-conforming persons."

The group requested a meeting with then-Director Cheatle to discuss proposed “action items” as a follow-up from what they learned at the conference.

More below ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Among these “action items” were:

• Human Resources Policy-Transition Guide for HUM

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had created a comprehensive guide to support transgender, non-binary, and two-spirit employees transitioning in the workplace.

The RCMP has agreed to provide a copy of its guide for use by other agencies.

The LGBT SEP said it intended to use the
RCMP's guide to draft HUM policy regarding employees who are transitioning/ or who have transitioned in the USSS workforce.

This policy will be developed in coordination with HUM and LEG. When the policy has reached an agreed level of development, the LGBT SEP will turn the policy over to HUM for formal coordination/ implementation.

Gender Inclusive Restrooms/ Locker Rooms -
Guidance for any new construction / rebuild / office relocation, consideration must be given for transgender and gender non-conforming employees (gender affirming care).

Read 4 tweets

Susan Crabtree

@susancrabtree

Oct 1

🚨🚨#BREAKING and EXCLUSIVE: What is the Secret Service doing about DEI in the new Trump meritocracy era?

A @SecretService Uniformed Division officer allegedly fell asleep on the job -- in full public view -- while providing security at the United Nations General Assembly last Thursday, multiple law enforcement sources told @RCPolitics.

The same officer, an overweight African American man, also has been accused of leaving his semi-automatic rifle (what appears to be a SR16) unattended while taking a bathroom break from his security duties, according to these sources.

New York Police Department officers witnessed and took photos of what they considered the officer’s unprofessional behavior — what they described as sleeping on the job and leaving the rifle unattended — and reported it to their superiors at the multi-agency command center, which included representatives from the Secret Service, the NYPD, and other law enforcement agencies.

A Secret Service spokesperson told @RCPolitics that the USSS Uniformed Division officer was relieved of his operational duties “immediately after leadership was notified” of the alleged unprofessional behavior, and the officer returned to Washington, D.C.

The Secret Service has placed the officer on administrative leave pending a disciplinary review and emphasized its “strict professional standards” and stated that those who violate these standards will face immediate “disciplinary action.”

@RCPolitics was unsuccessful in its efforts to reach out to the individual accused of unprofessional conduct while providing security at UNGA. The New York Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

RealClearPolitics was alerted to the Secret Service officer’s alleged unprofessional behavior just hours after @SecofWar Pete Hegseth lectured U.S. military leaders about the need to raise standards and eliminate “woke” DEI priorities in hiring and promotions.

There will be no “fat troops” or “fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon,” Hegseth said. Troops will be clean-shaven, and the military will offer few if any exemptions, either for religious or medical needs. There will be only male physical standards for combat jobs, and if that means there are no women in those roles, “it is what it is,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth’s stricter standards for the military is ratcheting up the pressure on other federal agencies to raise their own standards, including the Secret Service.

Even before the Butler assassination attempt against President Trump, the Secret Service was facing Congressional scrutiny over its DEI hiring and vetting policies during the Biden administration. Since Butler, one Secret Service agent, Rashid Ellis, has come forward publicly to blame last year’s agency failures during Butler on the Secret Service’s DEI priorities; many other agents and officers have made the same allegations to me anonymously.

It’s unclear what actions Secret Service Director Sean Curran has taken to address the DEI concerns beyond placing a number of Secret Service officials who worked on USSS DEI programs during the Biden years on administrative leave earlier this year in compliance with Trump’s anti-DEI directive. The Secret Service has not responded to repeated questions from @RCPolitics on this topic.

Full @SecretService statement to @RCPolitics:

“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of a Sept. 25 incident where a Uniformed Division officer working security near the United Nations General Assembly in New York City reportedly engaged in unprofessional behavior, including leaving a firearm unattended for a brief time in a secure zone before returning to the weapon. The officer was relieved of their operational duties immediately after leadership was notified that afternoon, returned to Washington, D.C. and subsequently placed on administrative leave pending a disciplinary review. The Secret Service has strict professional standards that all employees are expected to meet, and individuals who are found to have violated these standards will face disciplinary action.”

MORE PHOTOS BELOW ⬇️⬇️⬇️

More photos of the @SecretService Uniformed Division officer accused of unprofessional behavior while providing security last week at the United Nationals General Assembly meeting in NYC.

This one shows him sitting down while perusing his cell phone. The other shows the public location/post-standing position in Manhattan where the officer was located.

📣📣Turn on notifications. This is the first story/post of several re: the Secret Services' DEI issues I plan to post this week.

There are deep-rooted DEI issues left over from the Biden administration that the Secret Service must now decide how to handle.

@SecWar Pete Hegseth is setting the example. Will USSS Director Sean Curran follow suit?

What has Curran done so far to address these DEI concerns brought forward by at least one active Secret Service agent who went public with his concerns?

I'll link to my story about his public comments, below, as well as a petition that has been circulating that raises DEI as one of many reforms Curran needs to make to learn from Butler's mistakes, prevent another assassination attempt on President Trump, and up the agency's game when it comes to securing all protectees.

Read 5 tweets

Susan Crabtree

@susancrabtree

Sep 23

🚨🚨 Why did the @SecretService allow Pres. Trump and Melania to get stalled on an escalator today at the @UN General Assembly before his speech without moving quickly to protect the leader of the free world and his wife?

The stalled escalator with President Trump and first lady Melania stuck on it was a classic set up for an assasination hit, yet the Secret Service barely noticed and didn't pull POTUS and FLOTUS off the suddenly stopped stairs, Secret Service sources warn.

So while Trump and his @TheJusticeDept, @AGPamBondi, and the @SecretService celebrate Ryan Routh's conviction, the president's security team with its ZERO-FAIL mission need to be ever-vigilant.

Today could have been a horrible split screen.

Sources in the Secret Service community are very concerned about what they witnessed from fellow agents today when President Trump was stalled and vulnerable. It's a similar critique to the Secret Service's delayed response in getting Trump off stage after a bullet grazed his ear on July 13.

Yes, the stalled escalator was an @UN security failure, but the @SecretService did nothing to respond to the obvious security threat.

@RichStaropoli2, a former Secret Service agent who headed up the USSS security teams for the U.N. General Assembly multiple times, tells me the Secret Service agents surrounding Trump should have closed ranks around him and Melania when the escalator abruptly stopped -- then they should have quickly moved him off the escalator either up or down as quickly as possible.

"This is not hard. Don't just stand there," Starapoli said. "That's the issue.

"Look, they should have closed ranks right around there, as close as you can be. And you know what? Somebody's got to make a call. We're going to stand here like a bunch of morons, like we did in Butler. Or are we going to scoop up the first lady and POTUS and either go down or go up?"

More ⬇️⬇️⬇️

According to @RichStaropoli2, a former Secret Service agent in the New York Field Office and a Homeland Security undersecretary, the United Nations security was so difficult to work because they wanted to "screw with the Americans" that they once held up an entrance gate to the building for the Pres. George W. Bush motorcade for 10 minutes while he was urging them to open it to quickly let them inside.

"Eventually, the under secretary general of the U.N. tried to declare me and another [Secret Service agent who was my boss], persona non grata in the UN because we almost got into a fight and I almost threw a guy, a UN security guard, down that very escalator because they turned off the magnetometers for the president's visit," Starapoli tells me.

"They didn't want to have the magnetometers on because they said it slows everything down from getting in here," he added. "Really? How the hell do you know what these people are bringing in there? Why in the world would you shut down the magnetometers?"

The relationship between the Secret Service and the U.N. security team has gotten worse and worse, Starapoli adds, so the escalator and Teleprompter incident with Trump today come as no surprise.

"It was always, always a problem operating at the U.N. Our biggest problems were with the Americans that were working inside there who bought into the bullshit that this place was, you know, foreign soil, or whatever you want to call it. It was just ridiculous."

Read 5 tweets

Susan Crabtree

@susancrabtree

Sep 11

🚨🚨EXCLUSIVE and #BREAKING: This is a current Secret Service agent, stating in a Facebook post, that Charlie Kirk deserved what he got.

"You can't circumvent karma, [sic] she doesnt [sic] leave."

The comments are similar to the incendiary remarks now former @MSNBC contributor Matthew Dowd made on the network. The network fired Dowd from his contributorship yesterday for saying "hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions."

MSNBC called Dowd's comments "insensitive and unacceptable" and ultimately fired him.

The Secret Service agent's post is circulating in the Secret Service community with some agents upset over his sentiments because he appears to be celebrating the death of a political figure, and one whom the president is honoring with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and has often had by his side at events over the last several years.

Trump and others also credit Kirk with Trump's victory at the polls through the work he did rallying young people on college campuses and getting them out to vote.

What about other MAGA figures who often appear with Trump -- would the agent's political views prevent him from protecting Trump effectively or anyone who may be targeted while appearing with Trump or another administration official?

"If that's all it takes to set you off, that's dangerous to have around," one source in the Secret Service community told @RCPolitics about the agent's Facebook post on Kirk's death.

"I'm mostly concerned about the morals of a person sworn to protect the rights of others to engage in politics and exercise free speech, celebrating the death of someone exercising those same rights," the source added.

Several of the agent's Facebook posts negatively comment on Trump, his administration, and its policies, but nothing that I've reviewed is as pointed and offensive as this agent's post about Kirk's death.

I'm told this agent, who is in Phase 2 of his career, is not on a detail that would be regularly charged with protecting Trump. Yet, all agents, at times, are called off their official details/duties to contribute to presidential coverage of some kind or another.

In 2017, I reported on a now-retired senior agent named Kerry O'Grady who suggested in a Facebook post just weeks before the 2016 election that she wouldn't take a bullet for Trump. The Secret Service placed O'Grady, then the boss of the Denver Field Office, on paid administrative for nearly two years to allow her to hit her retirement date. She left the agency in 2019 with full pension benefits.

In the Wednesday Facebook post, the Secret Service agent, Anthony Pough, justifies his "karma" comments by making a blanket statement that "Charlie Kirk spews hate and racism on his show and adding the words: "Charlie Kirk says black women do not have the brain processing power."

It's an undeniably controversial subject matter, but the broad statement Pough referred to didn't include the full context.

These are Kirk's full comments in July 2023 after the Supreme Court declared affirmative action programs at public and private colleges and universities are unconstitutional.

Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Kentanji Jackson ― an MSNBC host, former first lady, U.S. representative, and Supreme Court justice, respectively — had all expressed strong disagreement with the ruling.

Kirk:
"You really have to wonder. In fact, you know, if we would have said three weeks ago, Blake, if we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and the late Rep. Sheila Jackson, Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks, we would have been racist, but now they're coming out, and they're saying it for us."

"They're coming out and they're saying, 'I'm only here because [of] affirmative action.'"

He then played footage of Jackson Lee, stating that she was a "clear recipient of affirmative actions, and particularly in higher education," but insisting that she graduated on her own merits.

Kirk then added this response, appearing to refer to Jackson Lee, who had just spoken in the clip he shared with his audience:

"Yeah, we know you do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person's slot to go be taken somewhat seriously."

“It’s very obvious to us that you were not smart enough to be able to get in on your own,” he added.

Here are some other criticisms/rants re: Trump and his administration's anti-DEI policies that USSS agent Anthony Pough posted on Facebook this year.

Read 5 tweets

Susan Crabtree

@susancrabtree

Jul 31

NEW WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM IN THE WORKS: @PressSec announces the construction of a new White House ballroom in the East Wing that will have the capacity to hold 650 people rather than the 200 that the White House can now hold.

The pricetag is $200 million, and Trump and other donors have committed to paying for it.

Photos of the project will soon be available at on the White House website. Looks gorgeous!

"President Trump is a builder at heart and has an extraordinary eye for detail. The presidents and the Trump White House are fully committed to working with the appropriate organizations to preserve the special history of the White House, while building a beautiful ballroom that can be enjoyed by future administrations and generations of Americans to come and the White House, we will continue to provide the American public, and all of you in the press with updates on this project.

"For 150 years. presidents, administrations, and White House staff have longed for a large event space on the White House complex that can hold substantially more guests than currently allowed. President Trump has expressed his commitment to solving this problem on behalf of future administrations and the American people.

Here's the WH website with the photos of how it will look:
whitehouse.gov/visit/

This pic is my favorite -- look at the bay of windows! Gorgeous!

Read 4 tweets

Susan Crabtree

@susancrabtree

Jul 13

🚨SECRET SERVICE SCOOP: Another 🤯Who signed off on the Butler security plan the day before the Butler rally even though there were discrepancies on how the AGR building roof would be covered in the plan?

Would you be surprised to learn it was:
Sean Curran, the head of the Donald Trump campaign detail, along with a supervisor for the Butler rally on his same Donald Trump detail, Nick Menster, and an inspector who was acting in a supervisory role, Nick Olszweksi, sources in the Secret Service community tell me.

All three got big promotions after Butler. Curran is obviously the Secret Service director, Menster is the No. 2 on the Lara and Eric Trump detail, and Olszweski, is ironically in charge of the Inspections Division, which falls under the Office of Professional Responsibility and ironically is charged with maintaining accountability and integrity for all USSS operations.

Who promoted the two Nicks? Curran.

None of those three supervisors received ANY discipline, but the two top bosses n he Pittsburgh Field Offices took the fall. They were disciplined, along with two other agents on their team, although all the disciplinary actions were slaps on the wrist.

Considering all of the above -- I find it highly interesting/relevant that @RandPaul's new report highlights this fact: "Details on these disciplinary actions were withheld from the Committee until Chairman Paul issued a subpoena for them on July 1, 2025. The American people deserve better."

They withheld it until 12 days before the one-year anniversary of the horrific Butler rally. This was under a Trump-appointed director -- Curran.

Full graph from Paul's new Homeland Security Committee report:
"Not a single person has been fired. USSS has conducted internal reviews, but only six individuals have faced disciplinary action. Two of those individuals received lighter punishments than initially recommended. The Committee believes more than six individuals should have received disciplinary action as a result of their action (or inaction) on July 13, 2024. Those who were disciplined received penalties far too weak to match the severity the failures."

This graph from @RandPaul's report about Kimberly Cheatle lying to Congress about not denying security assets for the Butler rally is so alarming it *should be criminal.

"According to USSS documents provided to the Committee, USSS Headquarters denied or left unfulfilled at least 10 requests by the Donald Trump Division (DTD) for additional resources during the 2024 campaign including enhanced counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) assets, counter assault team (CAT) personnel, and counter sniper personnel. i The documents revealed a pattern of certain categories of requests being either blatantly denied, unfulfilled, or required to be supplemented by local law enforcement or other federal agencies, such as the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), or Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). These documents further contradict statements made by former Director of USSS, Kimberly Cheatle’s testimony to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform."

But of course, politics had nothing to do with it, according to the Secret Service. (Cheatle was hand-selected by Jill Biden to be the director.)

Counter Snipers On July 1, 2023, President Trump visited Pickens, South Carolina, for a campaign rally.iv Prior to the visit, on June 28, 2023, DTD requested the Office of Protective Operations (OPO) provide counter sniper assets in support of this event due to “line-of-sight vulnerabilities.” v This request for USSS counter snipers included a full justification from DTD, noting the expectancy of over 20,000 attendees, a statement that TSD relayed to DTD that the use of ballistic glass would not be an option for this visit, and a notification that then-Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) of DTD would be speaking to the OPO Deputy Assistant Director about the request.vi The OPO responded to DTD, only three hours later, stating that following a review of the justification and manpower availability, USSS counter snipers were not available.vii

Furthermore, despite the justification sent to OPO and a conversation between the DTD SAIC and OPO Deputy Assistant Director, the Committee was provided with internal DTD communications stating that Uniformed Division (UD) counter snipers in full or LNO (liaison) role would not be authorized for the visit, primarily due to manpower constraints.viii

👉👉Notwithstanding the history of denials from USSS Headquarters, the current Chief Counsel of USSS, appointed by President Trump, told the Committee that there was NO DISCERNIBLE EVIDENCE of political animus related to the reason for these denials.

ix In a briefing with the Committee, USSS explained the lack of Uniformed Division counter sniper personnel is a limiting factor when determining approval for specific events.x Similar to using HSI Special Agents to supplement post standers, USSS explained that following July 13, 2024, USSS entered into a request for assistance agreement with CBP to use their Tactical Unit Snipers

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