In 2022, four agents were suspended for accepting thousands of dollars worth of ‘gifts’ from men impersonating law enforcement officers.
By Lloyd Billingsley, Frontpage Magazine
The Secret Service is coming under fire for the ease with which Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to get within 150 meters of Donald Trump, the distance U.S. Army recruits must hit human-sized targets to qualify with the M-16 rifle.
Former FBI assistant director Chris Swecker also called out the Secret Service for poor communication and failing to get Trump out of the danger zone in rapid fashion.
Those troubled by the attempted assassination should know that Secret Service incompetence and corruption are not new developments.
“The U.S. Secret Service has suspended four agents linked to two men accused of impersonating federal law enforcement officers who authorities said gave gifts worth thousands of dollars to agency personnel including one assigned to protect President Joe Biden’s wife,” explains an April 7, 2022 U.S. News story headlined “Four U.S. Secret Service Agents Suspended Over Ties to Phony Cops,” a reference to “Washington men” Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35.
According to the FBI, “Taherzadeh offered to purchase a $2,000 assault rifle for a Secret Service agent assigned to protect first lady Jill Biden and told other government officials they could have access to what he claimed were official government vehicles.”
Ali told witnesses that he has “connections to the Pakistani intelligence service ISI.”
According to prosecutors, “the pair had posed as special agents since at least February 2020 and offered a variety of gifts to Secret Service members and at least one Department of Homeland Security employee including rent-free apartments valued at $40,000 a year, iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, a flat-screen television, a case for storing an assault rifle, a generator and other law enforcement paraphernalia.”
The FBI found “a loaded Glock pistol, ammunition, components from disassembled guns and sniper equipment” along with “body armor, gas masks, zip ties, handcuffs, firearm storage cases, a drone, Department of Homeland Security patches and law enforcement clothing, DHS training manuals, surveillance equipment and a binder with a list of residents in the apartment complex.”
According to the Justice Department, “Ali and Taherzadeh ingratiated themselves with employees of the U.S. Secret Service because it provided them with cover and aided in their scheme.”
The pair also tried to recruit at least one person to join what they claimed as an official DHS “task force.”
The pair required that the recruit “be shot with an Airsoft rifle to evaluate their pain tolerance and reaction.”
Prosecutors called Taherzadeh and Ali “a serious threat to the community” and “a potential risk to national security.”
Last August, Haider Ali was sentenced to 68 months in federal prison for his role in a “fraud conspiracy.”
Last December, Arian Taherzadeh was sentenced to 33 months in prison for pretending to be a federal law enforcement officer to curry favor with members of the U.S. Secret Service.”
The four suspended Secret Service agents were not named, which was also the case in another failure.
In 2011, gunman Oscar Ortega-Hernandez parked his car on Constitution Avenue, fired at least seven rounds at the White House with a semi-automatic rifle, and safely fled the scene.
According to a CBS report, Secret Service agents responded to the sound of gunfire but were ordered to stand down. Secret Service bosses blamed the noise on construction equipment backfiring or a gang shoot-out.
The attack was not noticed until four days later when a housekeeper spotted broken glass and plaster around the Truman balcony.
The president and First Lady blasted then-Secret Service director Mark Sullivan, but deputy national security advisor Antony Blinken told reporters, “I know the Secret Service is on top of this and they will take every necessary step to correct any problems.”
Ortega-Hernandez was apprehended in Pennsylvania and in 2014 sentenced to 25 years in prison for terrorism and weapons offenses.
That year Secret Service director Julia Pierson resigned in the wake of security breaches such as an armed man jumping the fence and gaining access to the White House.
So Tony Blinken was wrong that the Secret Service would take every necessary step to correct the problems.
Jump ahead ten years and Blinken is Biden’s Secretary of State, a big fan of the letter proclaiming Hunter Biden’s laptop “Russian disinformation,” which he knows is untrue.
Joe Biden’s pick for Secret Service director is Kimberly Cheatle the veteran of “a long and distinguished career at the Secret Service.”
Biden came to “trust her judgement and counsel” and Cheatle “was easily the best choice to lead the agency at a critical moment for the Secret Service.”
Cheatle’s Secret Service failed to prevent Thomas Matthew Crooks from firing rifle shots that wounded Donald Trump and killed rally attendee Corey Comperatore, a firefighter and family man, and critically wounded David Dutch and James Copenhaver.
In May, House Oversight and Accountability chairman James Comer wrote to Cheatle about “potential vulnerabilities within the Secret Service preventing it from fulfilling its mission to ensure the safety and security of its protectees.”
The committee has now launched an investigation into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and requests Cheatle’s “voluntary appearance” at a hearing on July 22.
As Trump likes to say, we’ll have to see what happens.