Judicial Watch
Washington, DC – Judicial Watch announced today it uncovered 62 pages of records from the Department of Homeland Security thanks to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit which show, contrary to what it told media, at least one U.S. Secret Service agent broke in to a hair salon and taped over the salon’s security camera in Pittsfield, MA, during a July 27, 2024, campaign fundraising visit by Vice President Kamala Harris.
The records also show one agent telling colleagues that by covering the hair salon’s external security camera with tape, the Secret Service was “mitigating threats.”
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia after the Secret Service failed to respond to an August 2024 FOIA request for records regarding the break-in by vice presidential protective detail (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No,1:24-cv–02750)).
The New York Post reported on August 11: “The Secret Service apologized to a salon owner in Massachusetts who alleged that individuals broke into her business to use the bathroom during the agency’s security work for a nearby Veep Kamala Harris fundraiser…. [A] Secret Service officer covered a camera outside her salon with tape.”
A Secret Service agent in the New York Field Office states in a July 28, 2024, email to an official on Harris’s detail whose name is redacted:
The owner [redacted] called the NYC Duty Desk stating she has pictures of agents going into the house, covering up cameras and using the bathroom. The address in question is 54 Wendell Ave., Pittsfield, MA 01201. She just wanted to know who had given permission to go inside and use the space.
The Harris detail official forwards the email to an official in the “TSD,” Technical Security Division.
A Technical Security Division official whose name is redacted reports:
The building in question is [redacted]. It was a multi-story building with a salon on the ground floor, and residences above. I entered the day prior during working hours to ask one of the employees about [redacted]. I have no knowledge of any of the teams assigned to TSD entering the building at any time. [Redacted]
At least one of the residents were on the property and I saw them out on the balcony multiple times. I have no idea if they might have given someone permission to enter to use the bathroom. SA [special agent] [redacted] advised that [redacted].
I don’t know the extent of the issues the owner has, just what you see in his forwarded thread. If any further information is necessary, please let me know.
The message is forwarded to another official in the vice president’s detail and the sender states:
See below from TSI [technical security investigators] [redacted] the TSD lead for the visit.
Also I was informed after the visit by the Arrival Departure agent (SA) [redacted] that local PD [police department] were utilizing the bathroom within the building. VPD [vice presidential division] did not give permission to use this facility. However, local PD did seem to have a relationship with facility owner and stated they have worked together before! I was made aware that potentially one Agent may have used the facility as well which was the site 2 PI [protective intelligence] agent (SA) [redacted] which was paired with his local PD counterpart.
CSP [critical systems protection] Agent [redacted] informed us of camera vulnerabilities located on the hair salon facing the A/D [area/departure] area. I was informed that attempts were made to contact owners but unsuccessful. Day of the visit SA [redacted] mitigated threats due to covering the exterior camera.
The email thread works its way up to Brian Lambert, assistant director, Office of Investigations, who then writes to Michael Ball of the Investigations Division, asking, “Can you please check work [sic] BOS [Secret Service Boston Field Office] to see if that SA used the bathroom?” Ball replies, “Copy.”
In a July 30, 2024, email exchange a Boston Secret Service official asks a Pittsfield official whose name is redacted: “Sir, Please take a look. See if you know anyone in the video. I only know the woman who put the tape on the camera.”
In an August 5, 2024, email exchange between an assistant special agent in charge of the Secret Service Boston Field Office and a local police chief, the police chief confirms that at least one agent was in the hair salon, along with local officials. The Boston agent writes, “Hi Chief, Hope all is going well in Pittsfield. I am about to hit the road for Philadelphia for a week or so. Quick question for you. Regarding the video from the salon … were the individuals who went inside ever identified?” The police chief responds, “After I reviewed it, it appears 2 females were EMS County ambulance, 1 USSS [Secret Service] agent and 1 state police CERT [Community Emergency Response Team] member. Hope all is well!”
In an August 6, 2024, email from Business Insider reporter Jacob Shamsian to the Secret Service Media Inquiry Department:
I spoke to [redacted] the owner of the Four One Three Salon in Pittsfield. She told me that on the day of Harris’s visit, on July 27, she closed down her salon, which is located just behind the Colonial Theatre where Harris held a fundraiser.
She said that a Secret Service agent taped over the exterior security camera of her salon. And then a couple of hours later, her lock was picked and several people – including one person wearing a Secret Service uniform – entered the salon to use the bathroom. They left the door unlocked when they left.
Security footage that [redacted] shared with me backs up her version of events.
[The owner] told me that she later spoke to an EMT [Emergency Medical Technician], who told her that the ‘person in charge’ of the Secret Service that day told people to use her bathroom’s salon [sic]. She said she spoke to someone at a Secret Service field office (it wasn’t clear to me if it was the Massachusetts or New York field office – Pittsfield is in Massachusetts just across the border from New York), who blamed the local police.
The reporter, Shamsian, poses a series of questions that the Secret Service answers in the email chain.
When asked if a Secret Service officer picked the lock of the salon, Secret Service replies, “No one from the USSS picked the lock of the Salon door.”
When asked if the Secret Service sought permission from a person whose name is redacted or the property owner to “use the facility for the bathroom or any other reason,” the Boston Secret Service replies, “USSS personnel did not ask for permission to enter the Salon nor did any of our personnel enter the business. We reviewed the videos provided to us and observed that none of the individuals who entered the Salon were USSS personnel. The Pittsfield Police Chief confirmed those individuals were state or local police, fire or EMS.”
When asked if the Secret Service agent in charge – or any other officer – told others to use the bathroom, the Secret Service replied, “No one from the USSS directed any state or local personnel to enter the Salon or use the restrooms.”
On August 6, 2024, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Boston Field Office, Andrew Murphy, sends an email to a colleague in the Office of Protective Services (OPS) whose name is redacted, ordering him to, “Please send me the names of every BOS personnel working the [redacted] visit to Pittsfield. This information is time sensitive.”
The reply from the official is redacted. Murphy then responds, “Thank you. Can you please provide me with the names of the duty agents from the 27th of July through today.”
In an August 7, 2024, email with the subject line “Draft PreDecisional Statement” includes news articles sent by Vincent Tutoni, assistant director for Intergovernmental and Legislative Affairs, to Communications Director Anthony Guglielmi and others:” So DHS front office is interested in this unfortunate incident. Received a call last night at 8:45pm. We will have to confer with them this AM.”
Guglielmi replies, “Got it. Let us know. [Redacted] asked reporter for some time 11am. Salon owner had a previously scheduled interview today also with the local paper.
On August 12, Acting Director Ronald Rowe receives an email from a person whose name is redacted asking, “Will the Agent who broke into the salon in Mass be disciplined? Will the Agent in charge be disciplined for breaking into the salon?”
“The Biden-Harris Secret Service is unprofessional, dishonest, and corrupt,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The Secret Service not only broke into a business to use its bathroom but then lied about it, placing the blame on local law enforcement.”
Judicial Watch has extensively sued and investigated the Secret Service.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton’s new book, Rights and Freedoms in Peril, details some of Judicial Watch’s numerous lawsuits and disclosures about Secret Service controversies.
Recently, Judicial Watch sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for records on a 2022 car accident involving Vice President Kamala Harris’s Secret Service motorcade. The New York Post reported in October 2022 that “Vice President Kamala Harris was involved in a minor car accident Monday, one that was initially — and falsely — dismissed as ‘mechanical failure.’” The driver of her SUV struck a curb hard enough “that the tire needed to be replaced, bringing the VP’s motorcade to a standstill.” NBC reported that the vehicle had been partially airborne.
In September, following up on reports that the Biden Secret Service denied President Trump’s requests for additional Secret Service protection, Judicial Watch sued the Department of Homeland Security for all Secret Service and other records regarding potential increased protective services to former President Trump’s security detail prior to the attempt on his life at his July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
In August Judicial Watch released records showing that the Secret Service has made it a top priority that “diversity and inclusion is not just ‘talked about’ – but demonstrated by all employees through ‘Every Action, Every Day.’” [Emphasis in original] The records show the Secret Service, demands that 12 percent of its workforce be composed of “persons with disabilities,” and that it is the policy of the Secret Service to provide equal employment opportunity without regard to such non-merit factors as “disability (physical or mental).”
In August 2024, Judicial Watch received records from the district attorney’s office in Butler County, PA, detailing the extensive preparation of local police for the rally at which former President Trump was shot. The preparation included sniper teams, counter assault teams and a quick response force.
In August 2024, Judicial Watch announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) withheld information on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information about its coordination with the U.S. Secret Service regarding the July 13 Butler, PA, rally at which former President Trump was shot. In denying Judicial Watch’s FOIA request, the FBI cites FOIA exemption 7(A), which applies to information that “could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings”
On August 9, in response to a separate open records request, Judicial Watch obtained bodycam footage of the July 13 assassination events from the Butler Township Police Department.
