Former President Donald Trump’s felony conviction on Thursday has raised potential challenges for the Secret Service, which protects him, as Democratic leaders seek to strip him of his security.
In New York v. Trump, Trump was found guilty of all 34 counts of first-degree falsifying business records in connection with his alleged payments made before the 2016 presidential election to silence Stormy Daniels, a porn actress who allegedly had an extramarital affair with Trump in 2006. Trump has denied all the charges and any relationship with Daniels.
But the guilty verdict raises the possibility that Trump, a presumptive Republican nominee in 2024, could end up behind bars. The unprecedented development will raise many questions, including how Secret Service protection for Trump will fit in.
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Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower on Thursday, May 30, 2024, after being convicted of 34 counts of first-degree falsifying business records. (Felipe Ramares for Fox News Digital)
In a statement to Fox News Digital, the agency said the outcome of the case “will not affect in any way how the U.S. Secret Service carries out its security mission.”
“Our security procedures will continue unchanged,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams previously said the city’s Department of Corrections and Rikers Island prison were “ready” to receive Trump.
Asked last month whether Trump would be housed alone or with the general inmate population, a Department of Corrections spokesman said: “If he were to come into Department custody, the Department would find an appropriate place to house him.”
The New York Times reported that the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies had been discussing how to transport and protect Trump if he were to be jailed briefly on the contempt charge, but the challenge of a longer prison sentence has yet to be resolved.
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One reason for this could be that the ruling, due in July, is likely to be followed by a lengthy series of appeals that Trump could take all the way to the Supreme Court.
A.T. Smith, a former deputy director of the Secret Service, said this may be uncharted territory, but the Secret Service would not allow its mission to be put at risk.
Secret Service agents provide security as Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at Big League Dreams Las Vegas on January 27, 2024 in Las Vegas. (David Becker/Getty Images)
“They will act according to the circumstances. They will work with other parties as may be necessary depending on the judge’s decision… to carry out their mission, which is to protect the former president,” he told The Telegraph.
One potential obstacle to this protection could come from Democrats who have introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would strip Secret Service protection from convicted felons who are in prison.
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Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, has introduced legislation that would “deny unlimited security and government resources to convicted and highly dishonored former probationers.”
“Unfortunately, current law does not predict how Secret Service protection may affect the felony conviction of an individual, even a former president,” Thompson said in a statement.
“It is unfortunate that this has happened, but a previously unthinkable scenario could become reality.”
According to an attached fact sheet, the bill would address the possibility of President Trump being placed under house arrest rather than prison, with Secret Service protection.
“The bill would eliminate potential conflicts of power within prisons and allow judges to determine individual sentences without taking into account the logistical concerns of inmates under Secret Service protection,” the document states.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign says it is buoyed by the trial’s outcome and believes it brings Trump one step closer to reclaiming the White House.
“Unscrupulous Joe Biden and Democrats have locked President Trump in court for over eight hours a day for over six weeks, and yet he keeps winning,” Trump campaign spokesperson Caroline Leavitt told Fox News Digital. “Now that he’s fully back on the campaign trail, Biden and Democrats had better pull themselves together.”
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Levitt told Fox News Digital that Trump “earned billions of dollars in media coverage throughout the trial, held massive rallies and impromptu campaign rallies in and around New York, widened his lead over a fraudulent Joe Biden in the polls, and raised more money than Biden and the Democrats in April. Even this witch-hunt trial has not weakened Trump – if anything, it has only strengthened him.”
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo, Michael Dorgan and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
