Tag: secret service

Fixated On Epstein Files Week Before Shooting

The armed man shot and killed by Secret Service agents outside President Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago property Sunday had grown increasingly obsessed with the Epstein files and was also a vocal supporter of Trump … TMZ has learned.

Austin Tucker Martin sent a text message, obtained by TMZ, to a co-worker on February 15, 2026, that read, “I don’t know if you read up on the Epstein Files, but evil is real and unmistakable.” He continued, “The best people like you and I can do is use what little influence we have. Tell other people about what you hear about the Epstein files and what the government is doing about it. Raise awareness.”

Sources who worked with Austin at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in North Carolina tell TMZ … he became fixated on Epstein following the latest release of information tied to the files. Co-workers tell us he was deeply disturbed by what he believed was a government cover-up and often talked about powerful people “getting away with it.”

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Armed man shot and killed after ‘unauthorized entry’ into Mar-a-Lago: Secret Service

A man in his early 20s was shot and killed early Sunday after allegedly breaching the secure perimeter of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, FLorida, the U.S. Secret Service announced.

The Secret Service said the incident occurred around 1:30 a.m. when the suspect made an “unauthorized entry” at the property.

The individual was observed near the north gate carrying what appeared to be a shotgun and a fuel can.

Agents and a deputy from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office confronted the man who was pronounced dead at the scene. 

No Secret Service or Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office personnel were injured, and no Secret Service protectees were present at the property at the time, officials said.

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Secret Service Finds “Suspicious Object” on Trump’s Motorcade Route at Palm Beach

A “suspicious object” was reported on President Trump’s Presidential motorcade route while the President was en route from Mar-a-Lago to Palm Beach International Airport on Sunday.

President Trump has faced numerous attempts on his life, including one at his golf club in West Palm Beach in September 2024, when a man was found in a sniper’s nest with a rifle aimed at the President.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, would-be assassin Ryan Routh was found by a jury guilty on five federal counts, including attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and other gun charges, in September 2025.

Previously, on July 13, Thomas Matthew Crooks shot President Trump in the ear from a nearby rooftop as he was speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. One rallygoer was killed in the shooting, and two were injured.

Crooks was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper at the scene, and then-candidate Trump was rushed to the Hospital.

The President took a different route to the airport, and an investigation was launched, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“During advance sweeps of PBI airport, a suspicious object was discovered by the U.S. Secret Service,” Leavitt said in a statement on Sunday evening.

“A further investigation was warranted and the presidential motorcade route was adjusted accordingly.”

The motorcade took a “circular route around town,” and drivers in the motorcade were instructed to “keep it tight,” according to the White House press pool.  “Take off – at 6:48 pm – was fast and steep. A Secret Service agent was on the plane’s phone during take off,” the New York Post’s Emily Goodwin reported.

Further details on the incident are still unclear.

President Trump safely returned to the White House later on Sunday evening.

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Watchdog group demands answers after ‘unbelievable security lapse’ by Trump’s Secret Service team

The Secret Service continues to endanger the president’s life with lax security, and the government is sitting on information that might expose recent failures which allowed President Trump to get shouted down by Code Pink protesters during a recent outing to a Washington DC restaurant, advocates fear.

“I’m just really concerned about the president’s safety,” Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch told The Post.

“He was almost killed twice supposedly under the protection of the Secret Service and then they walked him into a potentially dangerous ambush,” he said of the September incident at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab.

The watchdog group has been trying for three months to get information on how the protesters got advance notice about Trump’s closely-held movements — at an event intended to demonstrate that the city was thriving under new federal security protection.

“These people were allowed to get within arm’s length of the sitting president with knives and who knows what else in the restaurant available to them,” Fitton said.

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FBI Raided Secret Service Agent’s Home in Tax Fraud Probe

The FBI recently raided the home of a Secret Service agent on Vice President JD Vance’s detail in an alleged tax and wire fraud case involving millions of dollars in donations and grants.

In the alleged scheme, the agent accepted donations to a charity that purports to help inner-city youth and victims of domestic violence but didn’t provide the services it reported to the IRS, according to several knowledgeable sources in the Secret Service community.

The raid, which took place on or around Dec. 8, was the culmination of more than a year of work by a joint FBI-IRS investigation that the Secret Service joined in recent months, the sources said. Federal investigators have interviewed more than a dozen Secret Service agents, some of whom contributed to the nonprofit at the center of the probe, which is run by an agent on Vance’s detail.

The Secret Service has placed the agent on unpaid administrative leave and suspended his security clearance, signs that the agency considers the potential crimes and misconduct extremely serious, even though the individual has not been arrested, according to sources familiar with the matter.

RealClearPolitics has reached out to the USSS and has been told a statement is forthcoming.

The alleged fraud could further bruise the Secret Service, which is facing retention problems as it struggles to regain its once elite reputation after two Trump assassination attempts last year. In addition to potential criminal prosecution, the Secret Service agent could face internal insider threat allegations for demonstrating poor judgment and possible criminal intent.

“This is bigger than the 2012 prostitution scandal because agents are trained to investigate tax and bank wire fraud – anyone involved knew what they were doing was illegal,” one source remarked.

In 2012, more than a dozen Secret Service agents and other personnel were placed on administrative leave, and several were eventually fired after their superiors discovered they had hired prostitutes during a trip to Colombia to prepare for then-President Obama’s visit to the Summit of the Americas.

The agent whose home was raided is listed as the founder and chairman of the charity’s board of directors on tax documents filed with the IRS.

The charity in question purports to provide laptops to young inner-city youth in its “Laptops for Hope Program” – at least some of which are laptops donated by the Secret Service because they are beyond their warranties, according to knowledgeable sources. Investigators, however, are looking into whether laptops discovered in the basement of the agent’s home were ever donated to the youth or whether there were plans to do so.

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U.S. Secret Service Seized 17 Skimmers, Stopped $17M of EBT Fraud in Texas

The U.S. Secret Service and local law enforcement seized 17 illegal electronic benefit transfer skimmers that stopped nearly $18 million of fraud in San Antonio, Oct. 28-29.

Law enforcement from the San Antonio Police Department and the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office conducted EBT fraud and payment card skimming outreach. 

Law enforcement visited 712 businesses and removed 17 illegal skimming devices, preventing an estimated potential loss of more than $17.7 million. More than 4,300 point-of-sale terminals, gas pumps and ATMs were inspected. 

Teams also distributed educational materials about Electronic Benefit Transfer fraud and skimming to help businesses identify illegal skimming devices in their point-of-sale terminals, gas pumps and ATMs.

“The U.S. Secret Service greatly appreciates our law enforcement partners as, together, we aim to proactively identify and remove illegal skimming devices in San Antonio,” said Brian Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s San Antonio Field Office. “Removing these devices before card numbers can fall into the hands of criminals underscores our commitment to preventing EBT fraud which impacts our most vulnerable community members.”

This effort follows a series of more than 20 similar operations conducted by the U.S. Secret Service and law enforcement partners nationwide.

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FBI Arrests Illinois Man Accused of Making ‘Heinous’ Threats Against Trump

An Illinois man has been charged in federal court with making threats against President Donald Trump, following an investigation led by the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service.

Derek Lopez, 27, was arrested on Oct. 28 without incident in El Paso after FBI agents from the agency’s Springfield office and El Paso police conducted a coordinated traffic stop.

“The driver, identified as Derek Lopez of El Paso, was wanted on a federal warrant for making threats against the President,” the El Paso Police Department said in a statement. “Lopez was apprehended without resistance.”

The suspect was interviewed by FBI and Secret Service agents before being booked into the Woodford County Jail. He faces a federal charge of making threats against the president, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

FBI Director Kash Patel called the alleged threats “heinous” and said they would be pursued with the full force of law.

“The threats against President Trump allegedly posted by this individual are heinous and have no place in our society,” Patel said in a post on social media. “Let this be a message: anyone who threatens violence against public officials or any American will be found and brought to justice.”

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WTH: Secret Service Agent Who Never Passed a Fitness Test Was Moonlighting as a ‘Plus-Size Model’

What is going on at the Secret Service?

RealClearPolitics is sounding the alarm on the DEI and woke culture still plaguing the Secret Service.

According to RCP, Secret Service Chief Sean Curran’s personnel decisions are raising eyebrows after he promoted one of

“Earlier this month, Curran also promoted disgraced former Director Kimberly Cheatle’s chief of staff to one of eight division chiefs in charge of more than 3,000 people. Counter critics argue she’s a respected, preeminent cybersecurity expert,” RealClearPolitics reporter Susan Crabtree said.

Additionally, it was also revealed that one of the Secret Service agents was an overweight woman who also modeled plus-size clothing for plus-size apparel brand Eloquii.

“DEI policies during Cheatle’s tenure pushed 30% recruitment of women by 2030; allowed overweight recruits; an agent to moonlight as a plus-size model trading on her law enforcement status; LGBTQ+ junkets to overseas conferences promoting ‘trans-inclusive culture” + the lowering of physical training standards for transgender agents, rainbow badges, pins, daily online “cafe” chatrooms for Latino, Black, LGBTQ+ employees,” Susan Crabtree said.

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FBI Confirms Hunting Stand Near Trump’s Air Force 1: 4 Things to Know

The FBI’s deputy director provided more details about a hunting stand that was found overlooking President Donald Trump’s Air Force One in Florida, saying the agency is now using its forensic tools in an investigation.

On Oct. 19, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the existence of the stand in a statement to multiple news outlets, including The Epoch Times.

Hunting stands, also known as tree or deer stands, are platforms that give hunters a better vantage point when hunting game such as deer.

Stand Is Dismantled

Agents with the Secret Service discovered the stand and were “very concerned” about the finding, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino told Fox News on the morning of Oct. 20.

“I believe we had our plane flown down there,” he said. “This hunting stand was appropriately dismantled. It’s being flown to our lab. I believe it’s there right now, and all the forensic tools we have, from digital tools to biometric tools, are all going to be applied to try to find out who put this up there and why.”

The Secret Service has since made changes to the security around the Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the stand was found, Bongino said.

“The FBI has since taken the investigatory lead—flying in resources to collect all evidence from the scene, and deploying our cell phone analytics capabilities,” Patel said in his Oct. 19 statement. “We are working with our [Justice Department] partners on service of any legal process required and will provide updates when able.”

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Secret Service agent fell asleep on the job at U.N. General Assembly, left his rifle unattended

A Secret Service Agent fell asleep on the job at the United Nations General Assembly last week. The unidentified agent also left his semi-automatic rifle unattended while taking a bathroom break.

The agent was relieved of his duties.

Per RealClearPolitics reporter Susan Crabtree:

A SecretService Uniformed Division officer allegedly fell asleep on the job — in full public view — while providing security at the United Nations General Assembly last Thursday, multiple law enforcement sources told RCPolitics.

The same officer, an overweight African American man, also has been accused of leaving his semi-automatic rifle (what appears to be a SR16) unattended while taking a bathroom break from his security duties, according to these sources.

New York Police Department officers witnessed and took photos of what they considered the officer’s unprofessional behavior — what they described as sleeping on the job and leaving the rifle unattended — and reported it to their superiors at the multi-agency command center, which included representatives from the Secret Service, the NYPD, and other law enforcement agencies.

A Secret Service spokesperson told RCPolitics that the USSS Uniformed Division officer was relieved of his operational duties “immediately after leadership was notified” of the alleged unprofessional behavior, and the officer returned to Washington, D.C.

The Secret Service released a statement to RealClearPolitics:

“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of a Sept. 25 incident where a Uniformed Division officer working security near the United Nations General Assembly in New York City reportedly engaged in unprofessional behavior, including leaving a firearm unattended for a brief time in a secure zone before returning to the weapon. The officer was relieved of their operational duties immediately after leadership was notified that afternoon, returned to Washington, D.C. and subsequently placed on administrative leave pending a disciplinary review. The Secret Service has strict professional standards that all employees are expected to meet, and individuals who are found to have violated these standards will face disciplinary action.”

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