Former president Donald Trump’s Secret Service security detail would be required to continue protecting him even if he landed in prison, a 1965 law on the protection of former presidents and their spouses suggests.
According to the law, the Secret Service has the obligation “to protect the person of a former President and his wife during his lifetime and the person of a widow and minor child of a former President for a period of four years after he leaves or dies in office, unless such protection is declined.”
1965 law on Secret Service protection for former presidents and their spouses.
© Photo : Congress.gov
Retired Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Joseph Cosgrove confirmed that the government-provided security detail would accompany Trump no matter where he goes, even if it was to prison, since they’re required by law to “protect him at all cost.”
“No matter where he goes, he will have Secret Service protection, which creates just this bizarre image,” the former judge said in a media interview. “Let’s assume the worst for Mr. Trump: if he were sentenced to some sort of confinement, he would be confined with his Secret Service agents.”
The situation surrounding Secret Service agents highlights just one of the many firsts and potential unknowns that the US navigates after Trump’s historic arraignment on Tuesday. Trump became the first former president in country’s 247-year history to face charges that could land him in jail. His alleged crime? Hush money payments to an ex-adult film star and the falsification of business records in a conspiracy to undermine the 2016 presidential election.
Scores of political commentators and journalists have highlighted the fact that Trump is facing criminal charges over crimes typically classified as misdemeanors while his predecessors, who signed off on legally dubious drone warfare and torture programs and lied Americans into wars, continue to walk free.