Tag: secret service

Secret Service Boats Were Inoperable During Rescue Attempt of Obama’s Chef Tafari Campbell, Newly Released Records Reveal

Judicial Watch has disclosed new documents concerning the unfortunate drowning of Tafari Campbell, the former personal chef of the Obama family, revealing that there were operational failures with Secret Service rescue boats during the emergency.

On July 23, 45-year-old Tafari Campbell met his tragic end while paddle boarding on Great Edgartown Pond, Martha’s Vineyard. A female Obama staffer was reportedly paddle boarding with him.

According to witness accounts, without a life jacket and wasn’t tethered to his board, Campbell lost his balance and fell off his paddleboard into the water. Desperately struggling to stay afloat, he eventually slipped beneath the surface, never to resurface again.

Campbell, who could swim as evidenced by a video he’d previously posted, was found in eight-deep water.

According to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Massachusetts, the official cause of his death was ruled as an accidental drowning. No signs of external trauma were found on his body, as confirmed by Timothy McGuirk, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.

On Tuesday, Documents obtained by Judicial Watch through a FOIA lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security uncovered that the Secret Service encountered crucial issues deploying their boats to aid Campbell.

“Newly released records show that when Secret Service agents rushed to try to rescue Obama’s chef Tafari Campbell, who was drowning, both of the agency’s boats were inoperable,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton wrote on X.

“The agents had to borrow the groundskeeper’s boat. A Secret Service report describes how two agents “attempted to start one of the boats but had difficulties lowering the motor. I headed down with [redacted] but told her to continue down and yelled to SA [redacted] and SSA [redacted] that I would run to get the keys for our USSS boat. I sprinted to the CP [Command Post], grabbed the keys and sprinted back towards the boats. A similar issue occurred with the motor on the second boat. We jumped into a third boat belonging to the groundskeeper and it worked without issue,” he added.

The records, spanning 31 pages, include interviews and reports surrounding the incident, identifying Campbell’s paddleboarding companion only as “Ms. Taylor.” She reported Campbell’s struggle before he tragically disappeared beneath the water’s surface.

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First photos reveal the COCAINE found in the White House: Images of the baggy in cubby hole that sparked White House investigation – and the culprit has still not been found

Photos of cocaine found in a phone locker in President Joe Biden‘s White House this summer can be revealed by DailyMail.com for the first time. 

The Secret Service included images of the bag of white powder that was found in a cubby hole used to store personal belongings near the White House’s West Executive entrance in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. 

Cocaine was found on Sunday, July 2 while the Biden family – including son Hunter – was spending the weekend away at Camp David ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.

The discovery prompted an evacuation of the West Wing and street closures surrounding the White House and then triggered an 11-day investigation once the substance was identified as the illicit drug. 

Documents obtained by DailyMail.com also show the Deputy Director of the FBI was involved in the investigation, which clouded the Biden administration in scandal this summer. 

The Secret Service closed the investgation in less than two weeks due to a ‘lack of evidence.’ 

The list of suspects had been narrowed down to 500, but security footage wasn’t able to determine the owner as cameras do not face the locker area. 

It is unclear if any suspects were interviewed during the short investigation. 

There also weren’t usable fingerprints or other DNA evidence on the ‘dime-sized’ zipper-lock bag that contained less than a gram of the drug. 

It had been sent to the FBI’s lab at Quantico for this analysis, the documents show. 

The Secret Service said the cocaine was sent for ‘destruction’ on July 14, a day after the probe wrapped up. 

Initial reports about the incident said the cocaine was discovered in the White House library, then the West Wing lobby and then finally the cubbies by the West Executive entrance.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s initial response to questions about whether the cocaine could belong to a Biden came in the form of pointing out that they weren’t home. 

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RFK Jr. Implores Biden for Secret Service Protection After Intruder Arrested at His Home Twice in One Day

The campaign of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is calling for Secret Service protection for Kennedy after an intruder was arrested — twice — at his home Wednesday.

Security personnel from Gavin de Becker & Associates, which was hired by the campaign, found and held the intruder until police arrived, according to a news release from Kennedy’s campaign.

Kennedy initially entered the campaign as a Democrat challenging President Joe Biden, but has since announced he is running for the White House as an independent.

Police arrested the man, who had asked to see Kennedy, the release said.

The man returned to Kennedy’s house after being released, the news release said, noting that Kennedy was home during both incidents. The intruder was again arrested after his second visit.

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Secret Service agent who was with JFK on day of his assassination breaks silence with claim that blows up the ‘magic bullet’ theory and suggests there WAS more than one shooter

A former Secret Service agent who was present at President John F. Kennedy’s assassination has come forward with a new claim that would debunk the ‘magic bullet’ theory and raises questions about whether there was a second shooter.

Paul Landis, 88, broke his silence on Saturday, nearly 60 years after Kennedy was shot dead in a motorcade passing through Dallas, to share his bombshell recollection with the New York Times. 

Landis, who in 1963 was a young Secret Service agent assigned to protect First Lady Jaqueline Kennedy, said that in the chaos following the shooting, he picked up a nearly pristine bullet sitting on the top of the back seat of the open limousine.

It was just behind where Kennedy was sitting when he was killed, he says. Landis says he took the projectile and placed it on the president’s hospital stretcher to preserve it for the autopsy investigators.

That bullet, the first piece of evidence logged in the murder investigation, has for six decades been said to have been found on the stretcher of Texas Governor John Connally, and was hypothesized to have fallen free from a wound to his thigh.

Landis thinks the bullet may have rolled onto Connally’s stretcher from Kennedy’s while they were next to each other. 

It has long been known as the ‘magic bullet’ — the bullet that supposedly passed through Kennedy’s neck from the rear, then entered Connally’s right shoulder, struck his rib, exited under his right nipple, passed through his right wrist and hit his left thigh. 

But Landis’ assertion that it had actually exited Kennedy in his Cadillac could lay waste to the magic bullet theory – and bolster the claim that Lee Harvey Oswald did not operate alone on the day of the murder.

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Report Contradicts Secret Service Claim No Fingerprints Were Found on White House Cocaine Baggie

Officials at the White House know who brought cocaine into the White House and have confirmed that finding via fingerprint analysis, according to a report which contradicts a statement released by the Secret Service.

A security source told Soldier of Fortune magazine, “We know who handled it… We’ve known since last week.”

According to the report — which Breitbart News has not independently verified — two sources disclosed the name of the person who is believed to have handled the cocaine, but the magazine is withholding the name pending official confirmation.

The report alleged that the second test by the FBI “brought back a hit on fingerprints.”

The report conflicted with a statement put out by the Secret Service on Thursday, which claimed that the FBI did not “develop latent fingerprints” and that “insufficient DNA was present.”

The statement said:

The substance and packaging underwent further forensic testing. The substance was analyzed for its chemical composition. The packaging was subjected to advanced fingerprint and DNA analysis. Both of these analyses were conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s crime laboratory given their expertise in this area and independence from the investigation.

…

On July 12, the Secret Service received the FBI’s laboratory results, which did not develop latent fingerprints and insufficient DNA was present for investigative comparisons. Therefore, the Secret Service is not able to compare evidence against the known pool of individuals. The FBl’s evaluation of the substance also confirmed that it was cocaine.

The Secret Service said there was “no surveillance video footage found” that provided “investigative leads or any other means for investigators to identify who may have deposited” the cocaine.

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Secret Service concludes cocaine investigation, no suspect identified

The Secret Service has concluded its investigation into the small bag of cocaine found at the White House and has been unable to identify a suspect, two sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.

Secret Service officials combed through visitor logs and surveillance footage of hundreds of individuals who entered the West Wing in the days preceding the discovery and were unable to identify a suspect, one of the sources said.

Investigators were also unable to identify the particular moment or day when the baggie was left inside the West Wing cubby near the lower level entrance where it was discovered.

The second source said that the leading theory remains that it was left by one of the hundreds of visitors who entered the West Wing that weekend for tours and were asked to leave their phones inside those cubbies.

The White House and Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CNN previously reported that cocaine was found in a cubby near the ground floor entrance to the West Wing where staff-led tours of the White House pass through on their way into the building.

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Secret Service declines to honor records request for White House cocaine docs

The U.S. Secret Service on Tuesday declined to honor a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for communications related to its investigation of the cocaine found at the White House, saying that to release those materials would compromise the investigation.

Bloomberg investigative reporter Jason Leopold posted the response from the Secret Service to his request, in which the agency stated that “disclosure could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”

The rest of the letter outlined Leopold’s options to challenge that determination but offered no other explanation for the agency’s refusal.

Reports emerged last week that cocaine had been discovered at the White House. Both preliminary testing and subsequent tests have confirmed the white powder to be cocaine. The discovery sparked an evacuation of the premises and has led to intense media scrutiny of the affair.

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Chinese Cybercriminal Hacker Group Stole $20 Million In COVID Relief Funds, Secret Service Says

U.S. Secret Service officials confirmed an exclusive report Monday alleging prolific cybercriminal hackers tied to the Chinese Communist Party have stolen nearly $20 million worth of COVID pandemic relief benefits.

Secret Service officials did not comment further upon corroborating the NBC News report. However, U.S. law enforcement officials and cybersecurity experts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the pandemic fraud instance is the first publicly acknowledged example of theft linked to foreign and state-sponsored cybercriminals.

Officials said the hacker group in question is APT41, which they described as a “Chinese state-sponsored, cyber threat group that is highly adept at conducting espionage missions and financial crimes for personal gain” that operates out of the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu.

APT41 — also known as Winnti, Barium, and Wicked Panda — allegedly began stealing COVID relief money in mid-2020 from approximately 2,000 accounts associated with more than 40,000 financial transactions, including Small Business Administration loans and unemployment insurance funds in more than at least a dozen states.

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Secret Service has Hunter Biden gun probe docs it denied having

The Secret Service has located hundreds of pages of records tied to the investigation of a gun belonging to Hunter Biden – despite having denied they existed, a government watchdog group said Thursday.

Judicial Watch is investigating whether the Secret Service intervened on behalf of President Biden’s son after the incident, and it has sued the agency for all materials related to the reported purchase, possession, and disposal of the firearm owned by Hunter Biden.

The group has accused the Secret Service of repeatedly changing its position on whether it has any documents related to the investigation. 

“The Secret Service’s changing story on records raises additional questions about its role in the Hunter Biden gun incident,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

“One thing is clear, Judicial Watch’s persistence means the public may get records that the Secret Service suggested didn’t exist.” 

On Nov. 10, the Secret Service revealed in a court filing that it has located over 100 records, totaling over 400 pages, potentially related to Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act request. 

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Michelle Obama’s Driver Charged With Criminal Harassment

The driver of former First Lady Michelle Obama, who is also a U.S. Secret Service employee, has been charged with witness intimidation and criminal harassment.

According to a report filed by the Oak Bluffs Police Department last month, Douglas Vines, 53, was involved in a relationship with a woman which allegedly ended up with the latter’s harassment. The woman told police that she had been dating Vines for about two months when an uncomfortable situation came up one evening when Vines asked her to have sex with him, which she declined.

The Secret Service employee is said to have gone “off the handle,” shouting at the woman and texting her that she was “messing with the wrong person,” the report said, according to CNN.

Vines is alleged to have used his position as the Obama family driver to intimidate the woman. He is accused of threatening the woman to have her deported as he had secretly recorded one of their conversations during which time she had revealed her citizenship status.

Vines also reportedly told the woman that he could get into her phone and read her text messages. He claimed to possess her DNA, the report stated.

Vines is said to have had images of the woman that he threatened to release and get her deported if she went to the police. One of the images was a shirtless picture of the woman covering her breasts.

The woman told the police that she was “in distress” because Vines had possession of consensual and non-consensual nude photos or videos, and she was worried he would use them against her. The woman attested that Vines never threatened to physically harm her. Instead, he is accused of having “emotionally abused” her.

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