Would a former president get Secret Service protection in prison? What we can VERIFY

Former President Donald Trump is facing felony charges in four different criminal cases and could be sentenced to prison if he is convicted. 

The criminal cases are tied to allegations of mishandling classified documents, election interference and participation in a hush money scheme during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump’s legal challenges have led many VERIFY readers to ask if the former president would receive Secret Service protection in the event of a conviction and prison sentence. 

THE QUESTION

Would a former president receive Secret Service protection in prison?

THE SOURCES

• The Secret Service
• 18 U.S. Code § 3056
• Bradley Moss, a lawyer specializing in national security
• Sonny Smith, Ph.D., former special agent in the Secret Service and lecturer at Texas A&M University’s Busch School of Government and Public Service
• Ronald Kessler, journalist and author of books about the White House, Secret Service, FBI and CIA

THE ANSWER

Federal law doesn’t specify whether a former president would receive Secret Service protection in prison, and no historical precedent exists.

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WHAT WE FOUND

Federal law has authorized the Secret Service to protect a former president and their spouse during their lifetime, unless they decline protection, since 1965.

But the law doesn’t explicitly state whether the lifetime protection would apply to an incarcerated former president. There isn’t precedent, either, since a former president has never been sentenced to prison. 

If Trump is convicted of any criminal charges and sentenced to prison, the U.S. government would face an “unprecedented logistical nightmare,” Bradley Moss, a lawyer specializing in national security, told VERIFY. 

“No one knows for certain how this would be handled logistically, although it is more than likely that Mr. Trump would be incarcerated in a private prison facility separate from other convicts,” Moss said. 

Sonny Smith, a former special agent for the Secret Service, said he thinks the agency “would be bound to continue” protecting Trump in prison barring an executive order or amendment to federal law from Congress removing his lifetime protection. 

However, he believes there are few situations where a former president would actually have to spend time in prison. In the event of a conviction, Smith said he thinks Trump would instead be sentenced to home confinement “for security purposes.”

Ronald Kessler, a journalist and author of books about the Secret Service, also told VERIFY Trump may avoid a prison sentence if convicted due to the challenges of Secret Service protection.

“I think that there may be some compromise where he’s restricted to Mar-a-Lago and not allowed to travel,” Kessler said. “The Secret Service will say, ‘Well, we, we really can't protect him in jail. There's too much of a threat in jail.’ And so I think in that case, the judge would allow him to leave custody.”

It’s unclear whether Trump would receive a prison sentence at all if he is convicted. But we can VERIFY there is no historical precedent for Secret Service protection of a potentially incarcerated former president.

This story is also available in Spanish / Lee este artículo también en español: ¿Un expresidente obtendría protección del Servicio Secreto en prisión? Lo que podemos verificar