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Sean Curran knew he had his work cut out for him when he agreed to head the Secret Service and help the troubled agency recover its reputation. Two assassination attempts against Donald Trump and the less-than-candid response by the agency brass had sullied the reputation of the once-storied agency and led to a raft of questions on Capitol Hill about whether the Secret Service had lost sight of its very purpose. Curran, the low-key former head of Trumps campaign Secret Service detail, found himself heading an agency that had been undermined by cronyism, nepotism, and uneven discipline. In addition, the Biden administrations shift to DEI hiring and promotions added another layer of priorities that complicated the agencys mission-critical work, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former agents. Over the last decade, the tensions produced by this change in culture, coupled with the demanding travel schedule many agents face, have led to an alarming exodus of mid-career and senior agents choosing to leave rather than stay until their 20-year retirement mark. Last fall, amid the fallout over the assassination attempts, the agency started offering $40,000-$50,000 recruitment bonuses and retention bonuses of up to 25% of an agents or officers salary to try to stem the tide. But the efforts have had limited success, these same sources say. The pressing question now, seven months after Curran took the helm, is whether he and his team are doing enough to transform the culture, jettison DEI priorities as President Trump ordered, improve morale and retention, and return the Secret Service to its elite mission-focused status. Curran and his new leadership team insist theyre laser-focused on making the necessary changes to ensure that last years failures never happen again. Curran has cited several post-Butler reforms initiated or continued under his direction, including ensuring clear lines of accountability and improving communications and information-sharing with local law enforcement. He also touts the creation of an Aviation and Airspace Security Division to improve the agencys drone-monitoring capabilities, and changes to the agencys resource allocation to ensure that assets are more appropriately applied in a threat-based way. Accountability for assassination failures has proven more elusive. Members of Congress in both political parties have expressed deep concern that no one was fired over the myriad mistakes made in Butler, and those who were disciplined received only 10 to 42 days of leave without pay, while Curran has promoted several supervisors who also bear some responsibility for security failures that day. Although there have been no serious assassination attempts on Trumps life in the seven months since Curran took over, politically motivated attacks have spiked and violent rhetoric has almost become normalized. Menacing comments against Trump and other Republicans have only ratcheted up in the wake of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirks assassination, including during last weekends No Kings nationwide protests some of which featured explicitly violent signs, gestures, and threats. Over the last year, several individuals have been arrested for vowing to kill the president, with successful Secret Service investigations resulting in some of these arrests. On Sunday, the Secret Service also announced that it had discovered a suspicious hunting stand with a direct sight line to Trumps Air Force One exit at Palm Beach International Airport. Despite these interdiction efforts, several embarrassing Secret Service incidents have occurred in recent months, renewing concerns about the agencys ability to protect Trump and other administration leaders and their families: In early October, a Secret Service Uniformed Division officer fell asleep in public while providing security for the U.N. General Assembly and left his fully automatic rifle unattended while he went to the restroom. After Charlie Kirks assassination, a Secret Service agent who attributed Kirks murder to karma in a Facebook post and criticized efforts to eliminate DEI priorities in the federal government was disciplined and placed on administrative leave. Over Labor Day weekend, the Secret Service physically screened a mans bag but missed a Glock pistol and let him into the Virginia course where Trump was golfing. The man, a member of the club, discovered the mistake and self-reported it. In mid-September, pro-Palestinian protesters confronted Trump at a D.C. restaurant, hurling epithets and calling him the Hitler of our time for more than 30 seconds before Trump told his detail to escort them out. In late May, a physical fight between two female officers outside of former President Barack Obamas D.C. residence was caught on video. The string of incidents has reignited debates over whether DEI and years of deteriorated standards remain corrosive problems within the agency. In an interview with RealClearPolitics, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, recalled how former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who was forced to resign after her disastrous congressional testimony in the wake of the Butler assassination attempt, had aggressively promoted the 30x30 initiative under a Biden directive to make the federal government a DEI model for the nation. The DEI program promotes the arbitrary hiring of women with the goal of 30% women agents and officers by 2030. The goal was one of Cheatles top priorities, and she had achieved 24% women agents and officers in the agency by the time she resigned last year, according to several Secret Service sources. Now, if that is going to be your goal, and youre taking your eye off of your core mission, which is to protect individuals, and then you are no longer meeting your prescribed mission, Blackburn said, this is how you end up getting ineffectiveness into agencies, and we see it in agency after agency. The American people are tired of this, whether its the ESG or any of these other initiatives, she added. They want government to do their job, and with the Secret Service, it is to protect these individuals who face constant threats. During Trumps first week in office, he pledged to forge a color-blind and merit-based society, and took aim at DEI programs across the federal government. In late September, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered all of the top generals and admirals in the U.S. military to convene in Virginia and announced 10 new directives that would shift the militarys culture away from what he called woke garbage and back to a warrior ethos and physical fitness. No more identity months, DEI offices or dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship, Hegseth railed. No more division, distraction of gender delusions. No more debris. As Ive said before and will say, we are done with that shit. And while nearly every media outlet credentialed to cover the Pentagon, regardless of political leanings, is openly opposed to Hegseths restrictive new Pentagon access requirements, his commitment to return to a military meritocracy has been credited with transforming a recruitment and retention crisis into a bonanza. Veteran Secret Service agents believe that a similar turnaround could be particularly beneficial for the Secret Service, especially given the hyperactive proclivities of the principals in the new administration. For agents on the top details, the high pace they expect during a campaign year hasnt let up, because Trump and Vice President JD Vance have far more frequent travel schedules than President Biden and Kamala Harris did. Agents on Vances detail are putting in some of the longest hours and toughest travel schedules in the agency. In contrast to Hegseths detractors, who fault him for his bombastic style and aggressive reforms, criticism of Curran has focused on his far quieter, low-profile approach. Curran commissioned Hollywood producer Michael Bay to produce a $1 million recruiting video, which was released online during the Super Bowl, yet he has done relatively few media interviews. He also has yet to address the rank-and-file agents in an in-person speech or via Zoom, opting to send emails when laying out new standards and informing the workforce of changes. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi insists the agency is in full compliance with Trumps executive order eliminating all DEI programs at the federal level and instituting the necessary changes within the required 60-day timeline. Curran is not only comporting with the letter of Trumps executive order eliminating DEI at all federal agencies, but also its spirit, Guglielmi asserts. Director Curran's leadership is centered on recruiting and retaining a workforce characterized by attention to detail, discipline, and commitment to our dual mission while also ensuring promotions and reassignments are merit based the right person, for the right position, at the right time, he told RCP in a statement. Director Curran has challenged his leadership team to reaffirm a commitment to the highest professional standards to achieve operational excellence. Shortly after Curran was sworn in in March, he sidelined many of Cheatles top lieutenants to bring in his own team. Just a few weeks later, however, a U.S. District Court judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from firing 19 intelligence officers who had previously served on DEI programs at the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The judges order requires the employees to remain on paid administrative leave while they seek reassignments or appeal their firings. There was no similar attempted mass firing of DEI officials at the Secret Service. Two of the key DEI leaders had already left before Trump took office. Lucious Hires, the former top DEI executive, voluntarily departed the agency last summer. His deputy, Jonathan Wynn, followed suit in December after Trumps victory. Responding to Trumps anti-DEI executive order, Curran shifted the agencys Office of Equity and Employee Support Services and its remaining employees back to its original mission of serving as the Equal Employment Opportunity and Conflict Resolution office. Before being rebranded and taking on a swath of DEI initiatives during the Obama administration, the EEO office for decades had handled employee complaints of unlawful discrimination and or harassment based on race, color, religion, sex, age, or disability. Unlike Hegseth, Curran has allowed the few known transgender agents currently on staff to remain, though its unclear how many there are. Its also unclear whether any of them are currently using drugs and surgeries to transition, something that theoretically could impact their ability to serve in protective assignments. The Secret Service declined to provide the exact number of transgender agents or officers on staff, citing personnel privacy rules. Curran has banned Uniformed Division officers from wearing rainbow-colored pride pins or patches, which Cheatles leadership approved and encouraged. Nonetheless, transforming the agency back into a meritocracy wont happen overnight. Senior agents report that several years ago, the agency was facing such a retention and recruitment crisis that it started accepting far younger candidates and far more who lacked previous law enforcement or military experience than it did previously. More recently, during Cheatles tenure, the agency also accepted overweight applicants, some of whom have had trouble passing physical fitness tests. Over the past several years, agents also report that outside of the top details, including the team protecting the president and the vice president, some field offices around the country are allowing the honor system for self-reported physical fitness or are simply not requiring them. For years, theres also been such a manpower shortage, and agents are stretched so thin, that many offices have drastically reduced firearms practice, according to several sources in the Secret Service community. Still, some current and former Secret Service are taking issue with decisions Curran can control the retention and promotion of agents who were key parts of his predecessors team. Currans decisions to retain one senior woman and promote another, both of whom played key roles in Cheatles tainted leadership team, have spurred renewed scrutiny both on Capitol Hill and within the Secret Service community. Darnelly De Jesus, a 25-year agency veteran and proponent of DEI, became the Secret Services agent in charge of its Office of Professional Responsibility last November, under then-acting Director Ron Rowe. Rowe was a Biden appointee and Cheatles previous hand-picked deputy, whom then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tapped to lead the agency after Cheatles departure. Curran has decided to keep De Jesus on his assistant director team. In that role, she oversees all agency misconduct cases and is ultimately charged with signing off on all disciplinary recommendations. Serving as a member of the presidents or the vice presidents security team immediately positions a young agent for future promotions. But instead of pursuing that track, De Jesus rose through the ranks as the agencys chief ethics officer and the deputy assistant director of training, while serving as one of the agencys leading architects of and advocates for DEI recruiting and promotion policies. In her current role overseeing misconduct cases, De Jesus is one of eight assistant directors who comprise the Secret Services top-tier leadership team, aside from the deputy director and chief of staff. Currans decision to keep De Jesus in that post, and his more recent decision to promote another female agent who served as Cheatles chief of staff, are raising questions among the rank and file about whether hes doing enough to break with the agencys recent past. De Jesus presence in leadership is seen as a symbol among Secret Service critics on Capitol Hill and numerous current and former agents who believe that misplaced DEI priorities during the Biden years contributed to the failures at Butler. One agent, Rashid Ellis, has publicly blamed DEI for contributing to the near-assassination of Trump. Ellis, who opposes DEI, also argues that he was unfairly denied an agency leadership position and believes women gender quotas played a factor. Whatever action the Secret Service takes with regard to Ellis complaints, De Jesus, a major DEI advocate who has the power to pull employees clearances, suspend, or terminate them, will ultimately be the one signing off on those decisions. Some Secret Service employees fear that De Jesus could retaliate against whistleblowers, including Ellis, who have expressed concern about the agencys DEI policies on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. As of Sept. 30, De Jesus LinkedIn resume still touted her work during the Biden administration drafting an enterprise white paper on Cheatles 30x30 initiative to hire more women, which she said was designed to increase hiring, retention, and advancement with the projected goal of meeting 30% of women in the law enforcement by 2030. After RCP inquired about her role in the 30x30 program, that bullet point disappeared from her online bio, although she still touted several other DEI accomplishments, including her cross-agency work creating a ground-breaking first-line supervisory class for all females across 22 separate agencies. She also mentions her experience increasing staffing in two divisions from 35% to 80% in 10 months, resulting in a 128% increase in hiring, with 73% being qualified minorities and female candidates. Some agents are also pointing to Kyo Dolans early October promotion to assistant director of field operations, one of the largest divisions in the agency with more than 3,000 employees, as further evidence that Curran is not a change agent. Dolan served as Cheatles and Rowes chief of staff from May 2024 until March 2025, when Curran took the helm and named his own top leadership team. Dolans cybersecurity skills are highly respected, making her promotion less objectionable than De Jesus for many in the agency. Neither De Jesus nor Dolan worked in a traditional protective assignment during their formative Phase 2 time in the agency and neither of them have spent time on a presidential detail, a long-valued path to promotion and agency leadership. Dolan, however, pursued cyber-security investigations for most of her career, becoming a preeminent cyber-security expert and spearheading the development of the first-ever cyber-protective career path for technical agents in the Secret Service. You would think that doing time on a presidential detail would be something that you would want from everyone on your team of eight assistant directors given the gravity of your one mission, Rich Starapoli, former Secret Service agent and a former Homeland Security deputy secretary, told RCP. You cant keep the status quo its bad for optics. Curran has publicly said he disagrees with DEI initiatives, but many in the Secret Service community have questioned just how committed he is considering these two personnel decisions and just how deeply rooted and pervasive DEI became under Cheatle. The Secret Services former DEI Director Lucious Hires in 2023 had called spreading DEI within the agency mission imperative and the ultimate goal and worked to incorporate it into every action, every day. The agency also promoted itself as setting the gold standard of DEI in a recruitment brochure that same year and established a group of the agency Game Changers to form the Inclusion Engagement Council, which helped spearhead and oversee DEI policies and hiring and promoting goals. Under Cheatles leadership, DEI had become so normalized that an overweight female agent who never passed her physical fitness tests was not only retained on staff she was allowed to moonlight as a model. The agent, who was featured in a magazine profile, traded on her job in federal law enforcement and hinted at her Secret Service position in a photo shoot labeled, Undercover, But Never Underdressed. The female agent, who bills herself as a nationally published curve model, plus-size fashion and fitness influencer, and body-positive advocate on social media, was assigned to protect Kamala Harris stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff, in New York. After several failed attempts to pass a physical fitness test, the agent was placed in the Special Services Division, which handles support functions for the agency, including the maintenance of the armored vehicle fleet and the screening of mail and packages for the White House complex, according to four sources in the Secret Service community. During Cheatles tenure, agents belonging to different ethnic and minority groups, such as Latinos, blacks, and LGBTQ+ individuals, each had a special caf� chat room on the agencys internal DEI website that would meet on different days to discuss the difficulties of being a minority while serving in the Secret Service, according to sources familiar with the practice. Secret Service employees, along with those from the Department of Defense and other federal agencies, planned to send employees to an Out and Equal Workplace Summit at Disney World in October of last year, at the height of the campaign season, as RCP first reported. For three days in early 2023, the Secret Service sent five employees, including Andrew Murphy, the openly gay then-head of the Boston field office, to the 2023 World LGBTQI+ Conference for Criminal Justice in Melbourne, Australia, according to FOIA documents obtained by the Center to Advance Security in America and provided to RCP. Afterward, Murphy sent Director Cheatle a list of action items necessary to become a trans-inclusive agency. Included in that list were the following: Determining whether physical fitness standards were having a negative impact on recruiting trans agents. Building a private changing area/curtained stall within both male and female locker rooms to offer privacy for gender non-conforming employees. Using the Royal Canadian Mounted Polices comprehensive guide to support transgender, non-binary, and two-spirit employees transitioning in the workplace. Agency approval of a badge with a rainbow flag as a cost-free tool to recruit more LGBTQ+ employees. Before Curran became director, Murphy was removed from the head of the Boston Field Office following an investigation into his handling of agents overtime and is now serving as an assistant special agent in charge of a different division, according to three knowledgeable sources. Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics' national political correspondent.
