John Smyth
2025-02-08 23:15:05 UTC
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Permalink'Agent confirms DEI contributed to near-killing of Trump'
'What I've seen with the United States is a different set of standards
based on gender''
<https://www.wnd.com/2025/02/agent-confirms-dei-contributed-to-near-killing-of-trump/>
'A Secret Service agent is for the first time publicly speaking out
against the agency's diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, which he
says contributed to the first assassination attempt against President
Trump last summer.
A 13-year veteran of the agency who has served in an elite unit and top
protective assignments, Rashid Ellis sat down for an interview with the
Independent Women's Forum, a Virginia-based conservative nonprofit.
IWF is in the process of making a documentary, titled "Qualifications,
Not Quotas," about Ellis's experience and released an explanation of the
documentary and a trailer Thursday providing a snapshot of his
experience and concerns.
"My initial thoughts when seeing the Butler assassination attempt was
dread," Ellis states solemnly in the trailer. "My stomach was in knots
watching it because we had known for years that this was coming."
"I believe agendas have taken priority at the United States Secret
Service for a long time, which is why Butler and July 13 happened and
why we got a president get shot," he adds.
A graduate of The Citadel, a prestigious military college in South
Carolina, Ellis has served on the Secret Service's Counter Assault Team,
an elite unit that provides tactical support to the president of the
United States. Ellis went on to serve on the Presidential Protective
Detail, a top assignment protecting presidents and their families, and
as an instructor at the Secret Service James J. Rowley Training Center,
where he has taught new and experienced agents about
counter-surveillance, according to a 2023 article on The Citadel's
website.
"To be in the Secret Service, you have to be worthy of trust and
confidence," Ellis, wearing his Citadel class ring on a braided necklace
around his neck, states in the video. "I've always viewed [it] as an
honor and privilege to serve in this capacity. However … what I've seen
with the United States is a different set of standards based on gender."
Despite his accomplishments, Ellis, who is black, says he was unfairly
denied a leadership position and believes that DEI gender "quotas played
a factor." He argues that the agency's hiring and promotions based on
skin color and gender have directly contributed to lowering morale and
the ongoing exodus of senior agents leaving the agency. The previous
Secret Service leadership placed a special emphasis on hiring and
promoting women.
"Real danger is out there," he states. "We need to restore confidence.
We have to be focused on the threat that's outside and the threat that's
in front of us."
During the final weeks of the campaign, whistleblowers warned members of
Congress that Trump was facing multiple "assassination teams," including
three inspired by Iran and other governments. The FBI arrested Asif
Merchant, a Pakistani national with ties to Iran, one day before the
Butler rally and later charged him with murder for hire as part of an
alleged scheme to assassinate Trump on U.S. soil. The Justice Department
in November announced separate charges against an "Iranian asset" and
two Americans in a murder-for-hire scheme against Trump.
Even before the assassination attempts in the final months of the
campaign, Secret Service agents were sounding the alarm that DEI
policies were lowering hiring and training standards in the push to
reach quotas for female and minority agents and officers, as
RealClearPolitics reported in late April.
The criticism came in the wake of an incident in which a female Secret
Service agent physically attacked a superior at Joint Base Andrews, home
base for Air Force One and Air Force Two. Secret Service spokesman
Anthony Guglielmi described the incident as a "medical matter" and said
the agency would not "disclose further details."
The incident attracted scrutiny of an initiative signed by former Secret
Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to increase the number of female
agents. Cheatle, whom former President Biden tapped to serve as USSS
director, was responding to Biden's executive order requiring all
federal agencies to demonstrate a commitment to DEI, which he issued on
his first day in office in 2021.
Cheatle, who resigned under pressure from Congress after the Butler
assassination attempt, signed onto the 30×30 initiative, a national
campaign to increase the representation of women in all law enforcement
ranks across the country to 30% of the workplace by 2030. Before Cheatle
stepped down, she was close to reaching that goal, with women making up
nearly a quarter of Secret Service agents and Uniformed Division
officers, Secret Service sources told RCP.
In addition, at least until Trump's first days in office, the Secret
Service had an "Inclusion and Engagement Council," which pledged to
become the agency's "game-changers" when it comes to helping the agency
"build, foster, create, and inspire a workforce where diversity and
inclusion are not just 'talked about' but demonstrated by all employees
through 'Every Action, Every Day.'"
The agency also had an Office of Equity & Employment Support Services,
which maintained an internal website to provide "executive leadership
and oversight for the effective management of all resources and,
agency-wide initiatives, and external requirements" for DEI. That office
included at least a dozen officials devoted to working on DEI programs,
according to screenshots of the internal website that RCP viewed.
After the first assassination attempt against Trump and before the
second at Trump's West Palm Beach golf course, the Secret Service's DEI
office sent out an agency-wide email soliciting nominations for agency
employees to attend the "Out and Equal" Workplace Summit at Disney
World. The all-expense paid, three-day LGBTQ+ conference, which RCP
first reported, took place Oct. 7-10, during the height of the campaign
season when agents were working at a frenetic pace with no leave
permitted.
The internal agency solicitation spurred a wave of criticism from
members of Congress investigating the agency's failures at Butler. The
Secret Service rationalized its participation with a spokesman noting
that only a limited number of administrative personnel were permitted to
attend.
On his first day in office, Trump began to dismantle the previous
administration's DEI efforts across the federal government. His
executive order, titled "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI
Programs and Preferencing," directed all federal DEI staff be placed on
paid lead and, eventually, laid off.
Trump also tapped Sean Curran, head of his campaign detail, as the new
director, replacing acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe who retired
last week. Just two days into the job, Curran started cleaning house. On
Jan. 21, he reassigned or pressed at least 10 senior leaders to retire
immediately in a shake-up agents referred to as "Bloody Friday."
Though many agents applauded these actions from the new administration,
they believe it will take years of effort to right the DEI wrongs, which
they say have severely weakened the agency.
"Though I welcome the change of leadership at the top of the agency and
the reforms I hope they will prioritize, I worry that it will take years
to rectify the damage that discriminatory diversity, equity, and
inclusion policies have caused," Ellis told RCP in a written statement.
"The Secret Service's role is critical, and if we do not clean out the
rot that has embedded itself in this agency, our people – and our
protectees – will pay the price."
Ellis noted that he has proudly worked for the agency for 13 years and
has repeatedly put his "life on the line to advance this agency's
mission and secure the safety of our protectees."
Unfortunately, he says, over the past several years he watched the
agency's leaders abandon its critical protective mission "in favor of
ideological goals."
"The relentless push by Secret Service leadership to meet diversity
quotas in particular has compromised our ability to meet our protectees'
needs," he argued. "This agenda has contributed to devastating security
failures, including the July 13 assassination attempt of President
Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
"I know this firsthand because I am one of many Secret Service agents
who was wrongly sidelined by agency leadership because I did not meet
their sex-based diversity requirements," he said.
The IWF is continuing to work on a full documentary about Ellis'
experiences and deep concerns but decided to release a trailer to
highlight the "counterproductive" impact DEI policies have had on
several federal agencies, including the Secret Service. DEI policies are
especially detrimental to the Secret Service's "zero-fail" mission and
its top priority of protecting presidents, vice presidents, their family
members, and key Cabinet members, according to Kaylee McGhee White,
editor-in-chief of Independent Women Features, IWF's storytelling and
journalism arm, which is producing the documentary.
"The Secret Service is one of many federal agencies whose work has been
hampered by divisive and counterproductive diversity, equity, and
inclusion (DEI) policies," McGhee White said. "Given the Secret
Service's critical work, this agenda has had particularly visible
consequences. The Secret Service's protectees should not be worried
about whether the agency is able to adequately prepare for and respond
to threats due to unfair hiring and promotion standards.
"Unfortunately, as Rashid Ellis has confirmed, that is exactly what has
happened," she said