ICYMI: How the Secret Service Handling of Jan. 6 Looks to a Former Agent

[Nevilledog]

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Jim Helminski
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In light of today's revelations please read my interview with @jackholmes0 at Esquire Magazine. The Secret Service has revoked all my affiliations with the agency I faithfully served as Assistant Deputy Director for 27 years:

esquire.com
How the Secret Service Handling of Jan. 6 Looks to a Former Agent
"The whole thing stinks."
8:24 PM · Oct 13, 2022

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a40719667/secret-service-january-6/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/MU1a5


Since the most recent hearing of the January 6 Committee, a lot of talk has focused on new revelations about Vice President Mike Pence's Secret Service detail—namely, that they were concerned enough while holed up with him inside a Capitol under mob attack that they tried to get in contact with their families to say goodbye. But the role of the Secret Service more generally through those fateful days came under the microscope last week with revelations that the agency has failed to produce text records from January 5 and 6, telling the committee that they were lost in a reset of agency systems. There's also been renewed focus on an agent named Anthony Ornato, who in an unprecedented development transitioned from Trump's security detail to a political role in the White House as deputy chief of staff for operations.

Jim Helminski was with the Secret Service for the better part of three decades, including as special agent in charge of then-Vice President Joe Biden’s protective detail and as deputy assistant director, where he oversaw all 42 domestic field offices. We asked him what exactly he thought was going on here. In a conversation edited below for length and clarity, Helminski offered his view on how Ornato's elevation could have affected how the Service navigated situations like January 6, the delicate balance agents must strike between the personal relationships they have with protectees and their professional duty, and the prospect that at a key juncture in American history, the service had become politically compromised.

Have you ever heard of someone moving from the White House detail to a political position in the White House, one day to the next?

No. I was with the Secret Service for 27 years. I was on both Democratic and Republican administrations, I was a supervisor on presidential details, primary supervisor on [then-Vice President] Biden's detail. This was never even thought of or considered in any way, shape or form. It's just unethical and totally unheard of. It politicizes the agency. When you take somebody who's a deputy chief of staff—if this was an organizational chart, that person would have more influence than the director of the U.S. Secret Service. And just the whole Lafayette Park incident is a prime example of that influence. That was not a stellar moment for the U.S. Secret Service.

In terms of that org chart, Ornato was deputy chief of staff for operations [as of December 2019]. In the chain of command, does he have any power over the Secret Service?

Not in an official chart. But when it comes to the Secret Service and the White House staff, it becomes a negotiation point of what can be done in a responsible security manner for the president of the United States. And typically, when I was there, you would go to the chief of staff and you would discuss upcoming trips and how they relate to security, what's wise to do, what's not wise to do. Well, if you bring somebody over like Tony Ornato—he wasn’t brought over there because of his political acumen. People who get those positions [normally] have been in politics for a significant period of time, so the only plausible explanation for him to be part of the White House staff at that level is to influence the U.S. Secret Service.

*snip*

[Scrivener7]

1. Waiting for the posters who like to tell us this is no big deal.

[onecaliberal]

2. There is no way to really know....

[Scrivener7]

4. How will we enforce not having the Secret Service involve themselves in a coup?

Do YOU want to fire them for their ideology? Do YOU want to set up a ministry of truth to police their beliefs?

That seems to be the argument. Honest to God.

[onecaliberal]

5. People in the SS and FBI need to be non partisan. This is 100 kinds of really bad.

[Scrivener7]

6. At the very least, the agencies should be debunking the stolen election myth

among its members. And firing those who express public sympathy for the traitors.

The SS needs a complete cleanout after the illegal erasure of the texts.

[onecaliberal]

7. It's concerning to me that in his endeavor to keep politics out, Biden will not do the what really

needs to be done. The secret service was willing to let psychos kill their own Vice President.

[Delphinus]

3. That's

a good article - the corruption of tRump runs so deep.

[ffr]

8. Where THE FUCK are the backups Secret Service???!!!

Move the fuck over, because if you also deleted your backups, then we want to know who gave that order. Then we'll know who some of TFG's moles are within the agency.

Clean house! If some of those motherfuckers have a political agenda, like the one(s) TFG elevated into high ranking positions, find out who they elevated in the agency, then strip them of all of their duties and show them the door! Get the fuck out, you Schutzstaffels!

[crickets]

9. Excellent article. Secret Service needs a housecleaning, badly. nt

[Hekate]

10. KnR