Imagine, for just a second, that Donald Trump has been tried in a court of law and found guilty. He’s sentenced to prison and cannot say he’s too famous or well-known to be incarcerated.
But there is an unanswered question that remains to be faced: If indeed Trump winds up behind bars, would his Secret Service detail go with him?
That’s the question S.V. Date of HuffPost began asking, and he got some interesting responses:
“Trump political adviser Jason Miller did not respond to a HuffPost query about whether Trump would waive his right to Secret Service protection if he wound up in the custody of state or federal law enforcement.
“One longtime Trump confidant, though, doubted that he would do that, and said he is more likely to ask for additional protection behind bars than he receives right now. ‘He would probably double up,’ the adviser said on condition of anonymity. ‘It would be an interesting situation.'”
There’s nothing in the Secret Service’s statute that addresses the matter, as it merely states the agency is “to protect” a president for their lifetime. And no former president has found himself under criminal investigation — Nixon received a pardon before he could be charged — until Trump came along. Yet another dubious first (along with being impeached TWICE) that Donald gets to have next to his name in the history books.
So would the Secret Service protect Trump if he’s behind bars? According to Bradley Moss, an attorney with expertise in the national security field, they’d have no choice:
“There is no precedent for this, so no one knows for certain the answer, and arguably President Biden gets final say over the extent of any USSS protection for his predecessor. That said, it is likely former President Trump would maintain protection even if convicted and incarcerated due to his special status.”
But Jeffrey Robinson, co-author of the book, Standing Next to History: An Agent’s Life Inside the Secret Service, disagrees with Moss:
“You’re not going to put Secret Service agents in prison to protect a guy who’s already being protected by the prison.”
That doesn’t mean, however, that Trump wouldn’t insist on the protection. After all, he’s a blowhard and a coward. That’s not a good combination for an incarcerated person, especially one who might be seen as a “trophy” for a fellow inmate hoping to make a name for himself.
