The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security charged with conducting criminal investigations and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and visiting heads of state or government.

currency. President Abraham Lincoln signed the legislation on April 14, 1865, just a few hours before he was assassinated.

The Secret Service is mandated by Congress with two distinct and critical national security missions: protecting the nation’s leaders and safeguarding the financial and critical infrastructure of the United States.

former presidents, their spouses and their minor children under the age of 16. those in the presidential line of succession, major presidential and vice-presidential candidates and their spouses.

By custom, it also provides protection to the Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of Homeland Security, as well as other persons as directed by the president (usually the White House Chief of Staff and National Security Advisor, among others). By federal statute, the president and vice president may not refuse this protection.

the neighboring Treasury Department building. the vice president’s residence.

and all foreign diplomatic missions in Washington, D.C. The protective mission includes protective operations to coordinate manpower and logistics with state and local law enforcement in the US, protective advances to conduct site and venue assessments for protectees, and protective intelligence to investigate all manners of threats made against protectees.

As part of the service’s mission of preventing an incident before it occurs, the agency relies on meticulous advance work and threat assessments developed by its Intelligence Division to identify potential risks to protectees.

Financial investigations include counterfeit U.S. currency, bank and financial institution fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, illicit financing operations, and major conspiracies.

The Secret Service is also a member of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) which investigates and combats terrorism on a national and international scale. Also, the Secret Service investigates missing and exploited children and is a partner of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).

The Secret Service’s initial responsibility was to investigate the counterfeiting of U.S. currency, which was rampant following the American Civil War.

Many of the agency’s missions were later taken over by subsequent agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and IRS Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI).

The Secret Service is also tasked with investigating reports of the existence of specimens of the extremely rare 1933 double eagle gold coin, as only a single example of the fourteen known survivors from this mintage year is authorised to be owned or sold.

The two core missions of protection and investigation synergize with each other, providing benefits to special agents during the course of their careers. Skills developed during the course of investigations which are also used in an agent’s protective duties include but are not limited to:.

After the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley, Congress also directed the Secret Service to protect the president of the United States. The Secret Service investigates thousands of incidents each year of individuals threatening the president of the United States.

The Secret Service is authorized by 18 U.S.C. § 3056(a) to protect:.

Under Presidential Policy Directive 22, “National Special Security Events”, the Secret Service is the lead agency for the design and implementation of operational security plans for events designated an NSSE by the secretary of homeland security.

Under the original Former Presidents Act, former presidents and their spouses were entitled to lifetime protection, subject to limited exceptions. In 1994, this was amended to reduce the protection period to 10 years after a former president left office, starting with presidents assuming the role after January 1, 1997.

This change impacted Presidents Obama and G.W. Bush, as well as all future presidents.

Protection of government officials is not solely the responsibility of the Secret Service, with many other agencies, such as the United States Capitol Police, Supreme Court Police and Diplomatic Security Service, providing personal protective services to domestic and foreign officials.

The Secret Service’s other primary mission is investigative. to protect the payment and financial systems of the United States from a wide range of financial and electronic-based crimes including counterfeit U.S.

The agency’s key focus is on large, high-dollar economic impact cases involving organized criminal groups. Financial criminals include embezzling bank employees, armed robbers at automatic teller machines, heroin traffickers, and criminal organizations that commit bank fraud on a global scale.

The USSS plays a leading role in facilitating relationships between other law enforcement entities, the private sector, and academia. The service maintains the Electronic Crimes Task Forces, which focus on identifying and locating international cyber criminals connected to cyber intrusions, bank fraud, data breaches, and other computer-related crimes.

In the face of budget pressure, hiring challenges and some high-profile lapses in its protective service role in 2014, the Brookings Institution and some members of Congress are asking whether the agency’s focus should shift more to the protective mission, leaving more of its original mission to other agencies.

With a reported one third of the currency in circulation being counterfeit at the time, Abraham Lincoln established a commission to make recommendations to remedy the problem. The Secret Service was later established on July 5, 1865, in Washington, D.C., to suppress counterfeit currency.

Wood was sworn in by Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch. It was commissioned in Washington, D.C.

At the time, the only other federal law enforcement agencies were the United States Customs Service, the United States Park Police, the U.S. Post Office Department’s Office of Instructions and Mail Depredations (now known as the United States Postal Inspection Service), and the United States Marshals Service.

After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Congress informally requested that the Secret Service provide presidential protection. A year later, the Secret Service assumed full-time responsibility for presidential protection.

The Secret Service was the first U.S. domestic intelligence and counterintelligence agency.

The special agent position does not have a positive education requirement (education, experience, or a combination of both). There is no specific time frame, but the process is lengthy.

An applicant can apply for both positions at the same time. If an applicant fails the SAEE, they must wait three months before reapplying.

It is recommended to initiate the process no more than one year from terminal leave or end of service. Active members of the U.S.

Applicants who are active military must provide a copy of their current military orders in order for the application to the U.S. Secret Service to be placed on hold.

Special agents can be an active drilling reservist or National Guard member. No.

Salary is based on experience, education, or both combined, but cannot be negotiated.

The Secret Service was formed in 1865 as a federal law enforcement agency tasked with sniffing out counterfeiters. Secret Service agents started protecting sitting presidents in 1901 after the assassination of William McKinley.

president assassinated in less than 50 years, the others being Abraham Lincoln (1865) and James Garfield (1881). Former presidents started receiving Secret Service protection after the 1958 Former Presidents Act and Dwight D.

In 1965, Congress instituted lifetime protection for former presidents. Advertisement.

A sitting president or vice president cannot refuse Secret Service protection while in office, but all of the others on that list can, including former presidents. From 1994 through 2012, former presidents were only entitled to 10 years of free Secret Service protection.

Congress restored the lifetime guarantee in 2013, citing heightened security concerns. In addition to paying for Secret Service protection, American taxpayers also pay millions of dollars to cover other expenses incurred by former presidents, including rent for office space, staff and even phone bills.

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Former President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter attend church on Easter Sunday at Maranatha Baptist Church on April 20, 2014 in Plains, Georgia. (Photo by Chris McKay/Getty Images).

Many are taking the time to get nostalgic about the former commander-in-chief. The former president grew up in Plains, Georgia.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN WISH JIMMY CARTER A HAPPY 99TH BIRTHDAY. Since 1976, the Secret Service has been by his side, protecting him.

“Rest easy Mr. President.

As a result of a possible government shutdown, former President Jimmy Carter will celebrate his birthday, a little bit early this year. The 39th president from Plains, Georgia turns 99 on Sunday.

Secret Service was founded during the Civil War back in 1865, it was originally tasked with one thing. As part of the Treasure Department, its sole mission was to combat counterfeiting.

It was estimated that one-third to one-half of the currency in circulation was actually counterfeit. In 1901, it took on a second assignment: protecting the president.

(Photo by Jeff Moore/The Elders via Getty Images). JIMMY, ROSALYNN CARTER’S GRANDSON SHARES HEALTH UPDATE AHEAD OF FORMER PRESIDENT’S BIRTHDAY.

Agents would begin to protect president, vice president, president-elect, vice president-elect, their family members, spouses, children under 16, heads of state and dignitaries traveling to the U.S., major presidential candidates within 120 days of a general election, other individuals by executive order, and national special security events.

It’s a weekend full of events planned to celebrate Georgia’s native son. This comes as the government shutdown has forced a few changes to the schedule.

In 1965, it was the height of the Cold War and two years after President John F. Kennedy was struck down in Dealey Plaza in Dallas.

Festival goers in Plains were in for a surprise Saturday when former President Jimmy Carter and his wife First Lady Rosalynn Carter made an appearance at the annual Peanut Festival. The couple took a ride in their SUV, greeting everyone who stood along the parade route.

It is more of a tradition than anything these days, but before the days of digital encryption, the Secret Service would use a code name for each person under its protection. Those code names used to be more discrete, but with the advent of new technologies, they are released by the White House on occasion.

That falls to the White House Communications Agency. JIMMY CARTER’S 99TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION AT PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY MOVED TO SATURDAY.

The names are meant to reflect and resonate the individual personally. In less than two weeks, former President Jimmy Carter will celebrate a monumental birthday.

The code names need to be easy to pronounce, unambiguous, and readily understood. Typically, all members of the same family will receive code names that start with the same name, but that is not always the case.

A New York Times article titled “The well-planned enigma of Jimmy Carter” by James T. Wooten, dating back to June 6, 1976, gave his code name away.

In reaction, Carter said, “Mr. Chips, I’m not sure I like being called ‘Dasher.’”.

President Jimmy Carter waves to the congregation after teaching Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia on April 28, 2019. Carter, 94, has taught Sunday school at the church on a regular basis since le (Getty Images).

He would go on to be called “Deacon.”. Carter became a deacon in 1942.

The name was apropos. Atlanta’s famous Corey Tower’s billboard is wishing Georgia native and former President Jimmy Carter a happy 99th birthday.

Amy, Chip, Jack, and Jeff Carter would be known as Dynamo, Diamond, Derby, and Deckhand, respectively. It is believed the former president and first lady would later be called Lock Master and Lotus Petal.

The Carter Center is planning on hosting a big party. It was announced earlier this year that the longest-lived American president, Jimmy Carter, would spend his remaining time at home in hospice care “instead of additional medical intervention.”.

This weekend, the Carters are expected to gather to celebrate the former president’s 99th birthday. And through it all, the Secret Service remains by his side.

Donald Trump stormed out of his $250 million New York fraud trial Wednesday, shortly after a judge fined him for violating his gag order and then rejected a defense attorney’s bid for a verdict in Trump’s favor. The visibly angry former president’s sudden departure elicited gasps from the courtroom and sent his own Secret Service agents chasing after him, NBC News reported.

Cohen, under cross-examination, said he did not recall if Trump had asked him to inflate the values of his assets on financial records at the heart of the civil case. Cliff Robert, an attorney for the Trump family, then asked Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron for a directed verdict based on Cohen’s answer.

During Trump’s absence, Cohen clarified that while Trump did not explicitly tell him to inflate the numbers, he communicated the outcome he wanted. Trump speaks like a “mob boss,” Cohen explained.

“Absolutely not,” Engoron said, telling the attorney, “there’s enough evidence in this case to fill the courtroom.”. After the trial adjourned, Trump headed straight from the courthouse to LaGuardia Airport.

Shortly beforehand, Engoron fined Trump $10,000 for once again violating a gag order barring him from targeting the judge’s staff. Engoron had summoned Trump to the witness stand to explain comments he made outside the courtroom earlier in the day, when he complained about a “very partisan judge with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.”.

Trump had previously been barred from making public statements about Engoron’s staff, after he sent a social media post attacking Greenfield on the second day of the trial. Under questioning from Engoron about his latest remarks, Trump said that he was referring to Cohen, who has been testifying throughout the trial day.

“Don’t do it again or it will be worse,” Engoron warned after issuing the fine. Engoron’s ruling is the second time Trump has been found in violation of his gag order in the fraud trial.

The dramatic developments came at the end of an already contentious second day of testimony from Cohen, who faced a barrage of attacks about his credibility as a witness. Trump and his legal team had spent much of the previous trial day targeting Cohen’s criminal history, attempting to paint him as a “serial liar” whose word could not be trusted.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case accuses Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization and top executives of falsely inflating the values of Trump’s real estate properties and other assets in order to get tax benefits and better loan terms. James seeks around $250 million in damages, and she wants to bar Trump and his co-defendants from running another business in New York.

Trump “would look at the total assets and say, ‘I’m actually not worth $4.5 billion. I am really worth more like $6 billion,'” Cohen testified under oath.

Habba asked him if he lied to the judge in that case during his plea hearing, and Cohen replied that he had. On Wednesday, Habba picked up where she left off, needling Cohen on his admission of lying to the judge before accusing him of “cashing in” on his current antagonism toward Trump.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in a separate New York criminal case charging him with falsifying business records related to the hush-money payments. Cohen, Trump’s once-loyal aide, is now a star witness against him in James’ trial.

Engoron, who will deliver verdicts in the no-jury trial, has already found Trump liable for fraud and ordered the cancellation of the defendants’ New York business certificates. The trial, which is expected to stretch into late December, will resolve James’ six remaining claims.

Cohen confirmed in court that he once had said he would “take a bullet” for Trump and had vowed to “never walk away” from him. She then questioned whether Cohen sought a job in Trump’s White House following his 2016 election victory.

Habba quoted Cohen’s words from his tell-all memoir “Disloyal,” saying that “of course” he was “cashing in” on his relationship with Trump. When she asked if Cohen had “significant animosity” toward Trump, Cohen replied, “Yes, I do.”.

The bubbling tensions between the lawyers and the witness occasionally boiled over. “I have answered every question that you want.

” Cohen asked Habba at one point.

He called Cohen a “proven liar,” a “felon” and a “disgrace” outside the courtroom, among other names.