Ronald Kessler, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, is the New York Times bestselling author of 21 books, including The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents.
Both the White House and the Secret Service told reporters tracking President Biden’s misuse of classified documents at his Wilmington residence that they keep no records of visitors to his home because it is a personal residence.
“Like every president in decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” the White House office said Monday.
Likewise, Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said the agency does not track people who visit a president’s private home, including Biden’s home in Wilmington, because it is a “private residence.”
This is misleading at best.
In fact, the Secret Service keeps records of visitors to the homes of all presidents and former presidents, including Biden’s home in Wilmington.
The White House and Secret Service said this week they keep no records of visitors to Biden’s Wilmington home because it is a personal residence. But can show that this is misleading at best
Biden is in turmoil over having classified documents at his Delaware home. An aerial view of the lakefront mansion is shown
In an interview, Guglielmi acknowledged that before anyone visits the home of Biden or any other former president, the Secret Service conducts a background check that creates electronic records of the visit and the results of the background check.
These recordings are never deleted.
Guglielmi told he never intended to mislead him. When asked by reporters for comment, he said he explained how guests and workers entering the homes of Biden and other former presidents are screened.
While protocols recording visits aren’t kept like the White House, electronic records are made and kept, but reporters tended to skip the whole story, he said.
Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service, was misleading when he said the agency does not track people who visit a president’s private home. He later told he never intended to mislead him
As with Biden at home, anyone visiting former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home or entering its grounds must first provide information about their identity so that a background check can be conducted. The check is part of the so-called access control procedure.
And on Friday, Fox News announced that the Secret Service is ready to release the names of Biden’s Wilmington visitors if Congress demands it.
“When a visitor is scheduled to come to Biden’s Wilmington home, his staff will notify the Secret Service and provide details of the visitor’s identity,” says Norm Jarvis, a former Secret Service agent. “Previous convictions, arrest warrants or contacts with foreign secret services are checked electronically. The electronic records of the background check and the visit are never erased.”
Once the person has been cleared, they must identify themselves upon arrival, Jarvis says.
There was only one exception to the rules. At the direction of former President Clinton, it waived the requirement for visitors to check into his Chappaqua home and undergo a Secret Service background check if the visitor was a Secret Service agent jokingly codenamed Energizer.
“When a visitor is scheduled to come to Biden’s Wilmington home, his staff will notify Secret Service and provide details of the visitor’s identity,” former Secret Service agent Norm Jarvis said. The entrance to Biden’s Wilmington home is pictured
Electronic screening is conducted to uncover criminal records for anyone entering a President’s home. “The electronic records of the background check and the visit are never deleted,” Jarvis said
As revealed in The First Family Detail, a Secret Service agent recalled that when he was first assigned to guard Bill Clinton in Chappaqua, a supervisor showed him around the complex, showing him all the security posts and describing how to served everyone.
“At the front post, where there is a guard booth, I was instructed what to do when a visitor pulls up,” the agent said. “Collect, collect and maintain a picture ID, put them in the visitor’s book and make sure they’re on the list,” he said.
The book The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Uncover the Hidden Lives of Presidents was written by Ronald Kessler
“If not, could you call someone,” the agent said. “There’s a specific protocol that you go through and it’s been scripted with everything you do. And when I was instructed by the supervisor, he said to me, “Except there’s one you don’t put in the book: the blonde.”
Smiling, the agent asked, “What do you mean by that?”
“Well, you will know,” said the overseer. “She might be in her forties, attractive, blonde, tanned,” the manager said. He said she lives nearby and drives an SUV.
“If she comes in, don’t sign her in,” the supervisor instructed. “You don’t take her ID.”
He said the agent also shouldn’t run her name, date of birth, and social security number through the criminal databases the Secret Service uses to check arrests, pending warrants, and other potential issues like contact with a foreign intelligence agency.
No other exceptions were allowed to be made, whether they were landscapers, Clinton employees, or relatives. Only the President and Vice President are exempt from such security checks.
“If we know beforehand, we will call you and tell you to open the gate for them,” the warden said. “You don’t stop her, you don’t approach her, you just let her in.”
Bill and Hillary Clinton are pictured at their home in Chappaqua, New York in 2000. At the direction of former President Clinton, the Secret Service waived the requirement that visitors to his Chappaqua home check in if the visitor was a blonde woman, which agents jokingly coded. named Energizer. She would show up when Hillary was gone
Donald Trump said Thursday Biden was getting “white glove treatment” after classified documents were found at his home
Anyone visiting former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home or entering its grounds must first provide identification information so that a background check can be conducted. The check is part of the so-called access control procedure
As the newly assigned agent began speaking to other agents at the command post, which was located above the Clintons’ detached garage, he learned his fellow agents’ unofficial codename for the woman: Energizer.
The code name, beginning with “E”, followed Secret Service protocol: when assigning code names to a refugee’s family, the Secret Service chooses names that all begin with the same letter. So Bill Clinton is Eagle. When she was protected, Chelsea Clinton was energy.
As a former first lady protected by the Secret Service, Hillary Clinton goes by the alias Evergreen.
Whenever Hillary left town, Energizer came.
“It was kind of funny,” said another agent assigned to Chappaqua. ‘She [Hillary] would leave and the Mistress would arrive just a few minutes later. Obviously someone called.”
“The mistress sometimes showed up shortly after Hillary left,” a third agent said.
“I often let them in at the front gate,” another[1] agent said. “We usually had a driver’s license or other photo ID when there were visitors at the residence. The ID was kept in the guard booth at the main gate, which we manned 24 hours a day. Not so in her case.’
“I would log on John Doe, the lawn man, or his staff and check them out, but you won’t see a record of Energizer anywhere,” said the first agent.