The agency is necessary, as Leonnig easily demonstrates by citing statistics surrounding threats to Barack Obama, which earned him protection a full year ahead of his formal eligibility as a candidate. In a seamy example, while on duty in Cartagena, agents solicited prostitutes, some of whom were revealed to have cartel connections. It has regularly “been ranked as the most hated place to work in the federal government,” a fiefdom of clashing bosses who demand personal loyalty, in exchange for which they’re willing to look the other way on certain matters. The agency’s mission should be simple, but it has become mired in morale problems, malfeasance, and poor leadership. The Secret Service was born after the failure of a bodyguard to protect Abraham Lincoln from an assassin’s bullet. Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post reporter Leonnig paints a damning portrait of a federal agency in crisis.
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