If a former president were convicted of a crime and jailed, what would the Secret Service do? Put agents in the cells with him?
No. He wouldnt need protection at that point.
I like the thought of him being in isolation ‘for his own safety’.
Of course he’d need protection. I suspect that even “club fed” is more dangerous than most city streets. Anyway, the law that assigns secret service agents to protect retired presidents doesn’t have an exception for “in prison”.
They would obviously use the well known strategy of beating up the biggest guy in the prison on Trump’s first day.
I suspect they’d arrange for his protection inside prison – perhaps working with the prison guards inside the prison, with agents rotating in and out of the prison covering shifts watching his back. So that if someone tried to beat up Trump, instead of having to wait 30 seconds or whatever for the regular prison guards to show up, the agents would stop it in moments.
You mean like those suicide watches that never go wrong?
A prison is not nearly as bad if one gets to walk out free after their work shift. I can see some agents rotating in/out in the Trump cell throughout the day.
He said ‘moments’, but he didn’t say how many moments it would take. If they’re across the room, it could easily take 20 moments to get there, maybe even 30 or 40. Lets just plan on two weeks or so. That seems like a perfectly reasonable time frame for something of such great importance.
Yeah, i doubt it would be the plum assignment for secret service, but it wouldn’t be terrible. Lots of people choose to work in a prison. Guards, social workers, doctors, teachers, etc. There’s no reason to imprison secret service agents, just have them work there for ordinary shifts.
“What do you do for a living, Daddy?”
"I guard a former President, Janie."
“Which one, Daddy?”
"…How is that homework coming along, dear?"
This question is one of the reasons why I’m predicting that Trump will serve any sentence under house arrest.
Aren’t on-duty agents required to be armed? And aren’t prison guards prohibited from carrying firearms outside of riot events?
Joseph Cosgrove, formerly of the Court of Common Pleas of the 11th Judicial District in Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, told Sky News on Tuesday that the agents would follow him to jail for his protection.
“No matter where he goes, he will have secret service protection, which creates just this bizarre image,” Cosgrove said…
One former Secret Service official said that an agent wouldn’t end up in a cell with him, but that there would likely be at least one agent on the property for protection — even if the agent isn’t “walking on his shoulder out in the yard.”
A retired FBI special agent also told Insider that Trump would “certainly not be part of the general population.”
Interestingly, when this question last came up, I learned that there is a law authorizing the Secret Service to protect former presidents but no law mandating it. When you think about it, that is consistent with general constitutional principles that the government has no particular duty to protect anyone.
If the New York recordkeeping charges are the only convictions, I would bet on this.