A former Secret Service Deputy Assistant Director was FIRED for speaking out.

[pnwmom]

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

As a former Deputy Assistant Director for the Secret Service. I have spoken out about the dangers to our democracy imposed by agents who have conspired w/Trump. Since then, the Secret Service has revoked my affiliation with the agency. Thank you
@CarolLeonnig for your reporting.

This article by
@jackholmes0
in at Esquire magazine got me dismissed from any affiliation with the Secret Service after 27 years of service:

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

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.

SNIP


Did Ornato ever leave the Secret Service when he took the White House job?

Simultaneously, he was doing both. So he didn't lose those Secret Service, law enforcement, federal retirement benefits. [Otherwise] he would be collecting a retirement, but it wouldn't be at the law enforcement level. There's a vast difference between a regular employee in the federal government and law enforcement employee in the federal government.

SNIP

I was going to ask you about that car ride on January 6. Are you surprised by anything you've heard about the Secret Service's activities that day?

SNIP

I think Secret Service had an idea [of what was going to happen]. I’m sure they had an idea. But everybody's intent at that point—except for Trump—was to keep Trump away from the Capitol. And probably one way of doing that was just not to plan for it. Now, Trump, on the other hand, goes, "Well, I don't have to worry about this because I already co-opted the Secret Service. I've got my New York field office guys in place, I've got Ornato, I've got Murray. I just tell them what I want to do.” Obviously, I'm putting thoughts into his head. But it seems extremely plausible that it's a scenario where, "I've co-opted the Secret Service, I marginalized their management. I could just tell them what I want and they'll do it."


SNIP

[Tetrachloride]

1. I can only presume that President Biden and Attorney General Garland

are on the job and in control. The momentum is against the Secret Service, that's for sure. It would seem that a great amount of sunshine is destined for the Secret Service. Otherwise, public confidence will be down there with the Supreme Court.

[Ligyron]

2. Next stop...FBI.

[KS Toronado]

3. Wonder if Biden/Garland could reinstate Helminski?

Provided he wanted to be, sounds like a stand up guy. And should they fire to guy that fired him?

[Celerity]

5. the Secret Service is under Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security's purview

[KS Toronado]

7. Would it have been Mayorkas that fired Helminski or someone under him?

Believe the article never said.

[Celerity]

8. I am sure it was not Mayorkas (if it was, we have true trouble on our hands)

[Hortensis]

10. If we look, we'll find that he violated his employee agreement

by speaking out, giving procedural validity if no other to the action. I believe indiscretion is taken very seriously. The more so no doubt as failure of other standards creates much that needs to come out.

I'd love him to be reinstated, but I hope he refuses to acknowledge revocation of his "affilitation" and to speak out with his 27 years with the service as his credential.

[flying_wahini]

4. I think all secret service should submit to lie detector tests to see if they are worthy of staying.

If they refuse, then fire them.

[Puppyjive]

6. What the hell has happened?

Have people lost their minds? It sure appears that way. Supposedly the FBI, the Secret Service and the military. Something has gone terribly wrong in our government. We are not suppose to be mean, racist people. We can no longer be considered a leader in the free world with the hate that seems to define us. I am disgusted with all of it.

[SheltieLover]

9. K&R!

[Samrob]

11. Mayorkas needs have "The TALK" with the SS. nt.