Law enforcement agencies have been pretending to be Secret Service agents at various Donald Trump events, according to an exclusive scoop from RealClearPolitics.
Reporter Susan Crabtree posted a photo on Wednesday that showed a man working a J.D. Vance event wearing a Secret Service patch on his armored vest checking a bag. Except, he's not actually part of the Secret Service.
🚨🚨 EXCLUSIVE -- DANGEROUS Secret Service imposters/deception:
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) August 14, 2024
This man, pictured below, is not with the Secret Service yet he is wearing a Secret Service patch on an armored vest issued by another federal agency while appearing to check a backpack in this photo.
As you can… pic.twitter.com/epI5umP4aI
After investigating, Crabtree found out that the individual is a Homeland Security Investigations special agent. This person also specializes in transnational crime and customs and immigration law violations for the U.S.
This is reportedly part of a growing pattern of chaos at the agency following the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
Crabtree said she has "personally witnessed Homeland Security agents, clearly marked as such, assisting at entry points at the Republican National Convention."
"The U.S. Secret Service became aware of a photo where a member of another law enforcement agency is improperly wearing a Secret Service patch," the Secret Service said in a statement to Crabtree. "Corrective action has been taken and guidance has been distributed to the workforce regarding the use of agency insignias."
"That said, no external agencies serve in direct protective or organizational capacities for the U.S. Secret Service,"the statement concluded.
The sources who clued Real Clear Politics in on the practice told Crabtree it's unclear how the practice originated and how widespread it is, but called it a real threat to security.
"There's a massive security risk because if all someone has to do is make a fake Secret Service path and throw it on themselves and walk around the site, how are normal Secret Service [agents] supposed to be able to tell who is who?" a source told Crabtree.
The revelation comes after Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned last month after she was grilled by lawmakers over the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. She faced bipartisan calls to resign at the time.
"Why was the Secret Service's protective perimeter in Butler shorter than the range of an AR-15? It does not take 60 days to answer that question," Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on social media during the hearings. "The agency's failure to publicly account for these questions and others from Congress is unacceptable."
