Story at a glance
- Nearly 900 U.S. Secret Service members tested positive for COVID-19 between March 2020 and March 2021, according to documents obtained by a watchdog group.
- Privacy concerns prevented the legal group from obtaining the identities of special agents who tested positive, their assignments, or when and where they tested positive, yet 447 were designated as special agents.
- Meanwhile, there were “249 members of the Uniformed Division, 131 working in Administrative, Professional, Technical Positions, 12 Investigative Protection Officers and 12 Technical Security Investigators.”
Between March 2020 and March 2021, almost 900 U.S. Secret Service members tested positive for COVID-19, according to documents obtained by a watchdog group.
A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the Citizens for Responsibility (CREW) revealed that from March 1, 2020 to March 9, 2021, 881 unnamed agency members contracted the virus.
Privacy concerns prevented CREW from obtaining the identities of special agents who tested positive, their assignments, or when and where they tested positive, yet 447 were designated as special agents, according to CREW.
Meanwhile, there were “249 members of the Uniformed Division, 131 working in Administrative, Professional, Technical Positions, 12 Investigative Protection Officers and 12 Technical Security Investigators.”
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CREW announced Oct. 5 that it had submitted the FOIA request, arguing that the Trump administration was putting members’ health at risk by holding rallies amid a global pandemic. The watchdog group further maintains that the former president “appeared to be deliberately putting the lives of Secret Service agents at risk in order to portray himself as tougher.”
The group cited rallies, the travel of the Trump children, as well as the former president’s decision to ride in a Motorcade with members while he was being treated for COVID-19 at The Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The Washington Post reported in August last year that dozens of Secret Service members became ill after rallies over a two-month period.
Former White House spokesperson Judd Deere told The Post at the time that Trump “takes the health and safety of everyone traveling in support of himself and all White House operations very seriously.”
“When preparing for and carrying out any travel, White House Operations collaborates with the Physician to the President and the White House Military Office, to ensure plans incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting covid-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible,” Deere added.
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