50 Secret Service Functions Besides Protecting Presidents

Maybe it’s time to prioritize

As congressional hearings open on the Secret Service’s failure in Butler, Pennsylvania, the agency is already moaning that it needs more resources. But while presidential protection is job one and “no fail” according to the agency, most of what it does day-to-day — from investigating unemployment fraud and identity theft to providing protection for the White House Press Secretary — has nothing to do with its primary mission.

Sure, most of the 7,000 Secret Service agents, technicians and bureaucrats in over 150 offices spring to action when Joe Biden or Kamala Harris visits, but mostly what they do is protect an endless list of cabinet and White House officials, foreign dignitaries, and former presidents. That is, when they're not dealing with the integrity of the money system, banking fraud, cyber crime, and critical infrastructure protection. 

The sweeping and bifurcated mission is in part a historical artifact of the Secret Service having formerly been a part of the Treasury Department, where in its original form was responsible for counterfeiting. After 9/11, the Bush administration created the Department of Homeland Security, where the Secret Service was relocated. A host of additional and ancillary missions were piled on, including counter-terrorism, but the agency fought to keep the old as well.

During a press briefing last  Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas gave the first public indication that the department was wasting no time to use the almost assassination to drum up more money for the Secret Service. (The Secret Service’s budget has more than doubled in the past decade, and now stands at over $3 billion annually.) When asked by a reporter if the Secret Service was stretched too thin, Mayorkas replied, “I do intend to speak with members of the Hill with respect to the resources that we need.

Secret Service agent holding seized counterfeit dollar bills. They’ll be holding a lot more real ones soon! | Getty

In the same briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre agreed, saying that President Biden “direct[ed] the Secret Service to provide Donald Trump and all other protectees the resources needed to ensure safety.”  God forbid she or Mayorkas suggest that maybe they don’t need Secret Service protection, but that’s what happens when you ask the agency to protect important people: everyone becomes essential.

If this is starting to sound like a rather long list, that’s because it is. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle loves to reiterate the agency’s “no-fail mission,” but neither she nor anyone in Congress is suggesting that perhaps the agency pass on some of its functions, which includes investigating “pig butchering,” and instead apply to its protective work. 

Here are 50 things the Secret Service does besides protecting presidents, based on dozens of records both public and non-public that we reviewed.

1. Protecting former Presidents and their families (the Clinton protective division, for instance, takes 68 agents and technicians)

2. Protecting the Vice President’s spouses and children

3. Protecting the Secretary of Homeland Security

4. Protecting the Secretary of the Treasury

5. Protecting the United States Trade Representative

6. Protecting the White House National Security Advisor

7. Protecting the White House Press Secretary

8. Protecting other “cabinet level protectees”

9. Protecting select presidential nominees (e.g., Robert Kennedy, Jr.)

10. Protecting foreign heads of state

11. Protecting foreign “dignitaries”

12. Investigating bank fraud; and analyzing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and related banking data

13. Investigating mortgage fraud

14. Investigating money laundering and illegal tax havens

15. Investigating credit card fraud

16. Investigating check fraud

17. Investigating wire and telecommunications fraud

18. Investigating child pornography related federal crimes

19. Investigating identity theft and identity fraud

20. Investigating unemployment compensation fraud

21. Providing staffing for the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)

22. Investigating ransomware attacks

23. Investigating cryptocurrency and bitcoin fraud

24. Investigating gas pump skimming

25. Investigating business e-mail compromise (BEC) crimes

26. Investigating network intrusion (NITRO) and Critical Systems Protection (CSP) and responding to critical infrastructure and computer network breaches

27. Investigating pig butchering

28. Staffing Digital Evidence Forensic Labs (DEFLs) and providing specialized digital forensics, digital evidence recovery and cell phone tracking for state and local law enforcement

29. Leading financial crimes task forces

30. Leading electronic crimes task forces

31. Leading cyber fraud task forces

32. Finding and exploiting credit card skimmers

33. Manning the International Ink Library

34. Staffing Covid-19 (PPP) fraud task forces

35. Staffing the Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture, allocating federal seizures of cash and property to different agencies

36. Staffing FBI-run interagency Joint Terrorism Task Forces and participating in the Task Force Officer program

37. Staffing the DNI National Counterterrorism Center in both its international and domestic functions

38. Staffing the FBI Terrorist Screening Center and helping to maintain the domestic terror watchlist

39. Staffing interagency Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and the interagency High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program

40. Providing liaison to over 10,000 private companies, including banking and financial management, airlines,  IT and social media companies, as well as academic partners

41. Staffing and liaising with state and urban fusion centers, homeland security investigations (HSI) field offices, Customs, border patrol, ICE activities, FBI offices and resident agencies, Postal Inspection Service, and military explosive ordnance disposal offices

42. Assisting with Department of Justice Priority Transnational Organized Crime (PTOC) cases

43. Providing liaison to over 20,000 state, local, tribal, territorial partners, and federal and state prosecutors

44. Researching and responding to Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CUAS); Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS); Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Devices (RCIED); explosive; and chemical/biological/radiological threats

45. Providing protection for NATO Summits and meetings

46. Providing protection for the United Nations General Assembly

47. Providing protection for state funerals

48. Providing protection for G7/G20 summits and meeting

49. Providing protection and counter surveillance for domestic-based Olympics (Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, etc.)

50. Training foreign law enforcement personnel and staffing the Secret Service component of the State Department's International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA)

— Edited by William M. Arkin