Will Hunter Biden get Secret Service shield, and who is the last member of First Family that turned down offer?
A part of being the president, or vice-president, is the beefed up security that comes along with it. All immediate family members of the president and president-elect are offered security by the Secret Service. The same offer is made to the vice-president and vice-president-elect and their immediate family members. For instance, all of Donald Trump's children have Secret Service protection.
Another security rule is that ex-presidents and ex-vice-presidents receive protection for life if they wish while children of former leaders are given protection until they turn 16. In fact, in 1965, Congress authorized the Secret Service to protect a former president and their spouse for a lifetime, unless they declined. Under such circumstances, will Hunter Biden, president-elect Joe Biden's son who has been in the middle of numerous controversies, receive security by the Secret Service?
According to multiple reports, Hunter previously had a Secret Service detail when his father was in office as the vice-president under former president Barack Obama. According to the law, Hunter – who lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Melissa Cohen, and their seven-month-old son – is eligible to receive round-the-clock security unless he himself refuses the service. Over the years, only a few have ever declined secret service protection.
Back in 2009, Hunter was provided with a Secret Service detail when his father entered the White House but stopped the protection in July 2014. The security was refused by Hunter after a Time magazine article revealed his financial ties to Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas conglomerate. According to Daily Mail, a Senate Homeland Security Committee report, released in September, showed that Hunter took 411 domestic and international flights upon which the federal government provided security between June 2009 and July 2014. He traveled to at least 29 foreign countries, including one trip to Russia and five visits to China.
All of Trump's children accepted Secret Service protection with Trump Jr briefly rejecting it as he was seeking more privacy. Then, less than a month later, Trump Jr restored his Secret Service detail for unspecified reasons. The last one to turn down the security detail completely was Ronald Reagan Jr, son of the 40th president Ronald Reagan. Reagan Jr turned rejected Secret Service security in his father's second term.