America's oldest law enforcement agency, the United States Secret Service, has never been exposed like this before. The Secret Service has made many headlines through the decades, especially in the last five years. This book presents a thorough look at more than 100 of the most famous, infamous, and interesting agents who have protected presidents from William McKinley to John F. Kennedy to President Trump and everyone in between. Students of history will find much to contemplate in this revealing, entertaining, and sometimes disturbing book. Readers will never look at the men who guard the president the same way ever again.

After conducting exclusive interviews with more than one hundred current and former Secret Service agents, bestselling author and award-winning reporter Ronald Kessler reveals their secrets for the first time. Never before has a journalist penetrated the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service, that elite corps of agents who pledge to take a bullet to protect the president and his family. Kessler portrays the dangers that agents face and how they carry out their missions--from how they are trained to how they spot and assess potential threats. With fly-on-the-wall perspective, he captures the drama and tension that characterize agents’ lives and reveals what they have seen, providing startling, previously untold stories about the presidents, from John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush and Barack Obama, as well as about their families, Cabinet officers, and White House aides.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Ron Kessler appears to get everything first.”—Slate As in a play, presidents, vice presidents, and presidential candidates perform onstage for the public and the media. What the nation’s leaders are really like and what goes on behind the scenes remain hidden. Secret Service agents have a front-row seat on their private lives and those of their wives and children. Crammed with new headline-making revelations, The First Family Detail by New York Times bestselling author Ronald Kessler tells that eye-opening, uncensored story. The First Family Detail reveals: • Vice President Joe Biden regularly orders the Secret Service to keep his military aide with the nuclear football a mile behind his motorcade, potentially leaving the country unable to retaliate in the event of a nuclear attack. • Secret Service agents discovered that former president Bill Clinton has a blond mistress—code-named Energizer by agents—who lives near the Clintons’ home in Chappaqua, New York. • The Secret Service covered up the fact that President Ronald Reagan’s White House staff overruled the agency to let unscreened spectators get close to Reagan as he left the Washington Hilton, allowing John W. Hinckley Jr. to shoot the president. • Because Hillary Clinton is so nasty to agents, being assigned to her protective detail is considered a form of punishment and the worst assignment in the Secret Service. “Kessler’s such a skilled storyteller, you almost forget this is dead-serious nonfiction.”—Newsweek

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “This is one of those books that will go down as the seminal work—the determinative work—in this field. . . . Terrifying.”—Rachel Maddow The first definitive account of the rise and fall of the Secret Service, from the Kennedy assassination to the alarming mismanagement of the Obama and Trump years, right up to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6—by the Pulitzer Prize winner and #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of A Very Stable Genius and I Alone Can Fix It NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST Carol Leonnig has been reporting on the Secret Service for The Washington Post for most of the last decade, bringing to light the secrets, scandals, and shortcomings that plague the agency today—from a toxic work culture to dangerously outdated equipment to the deep resentment within the ranks at key agency leaders, who put protecting the agency’s once-hallowed image before fixing its flaws. But the Secret Service wasn’t always so troubled. The Secret Service was born in 1865, in the wake of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but its story begins in earnest in 1963, with the death of John F. Kennedy. Shocked into reform by its failure to protect the president on that fateful day in Dallas, this once-sleepy agency was radically transformed into an elite, highly trained unit that would redeem itself several times, most famously in 1981 by thwarting an assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan. But this reputation for courage and excellence would not last forever. By Barack Obama’s presidency, the once-proud Secret Service was running on fumes and beset by mistakes and alarming lapses in judgment: break-ins at the White House, an armed gunman firing into the windows of the residence while confused agents stood by, and a massive prostitution scandal among agents in Cartagena, to name just a few. With Donald Trump’s arrival, a series of promised reforms were cast aside, as a president disdainful of public service instead abused the Secret Service to rack up political and personal gains. To explore these problems in the ranks, Leonnig interviewed dozens of current and former agents, government officials, and whistleblowers who put their jobs on the line to speak out about a hobbled agency that’s in desperate need of reform. “I will be forever grateful to them for risking their careers,” she writes, “not because they wanted to share tantalizing gossip about presidents and their families, but because they know that the Service is broken and needs fixing. By telling their story, they hope to revive the Service they love.”

"Dan Emmett was just eight years old when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The events surrounding the President's death shaped the course of young Emmett's life as he set a goal of becoming a US Secret Service agent--one of a special group of people willing to trade their lives for that of the President, if necessary. Within Arm's Length is the essential book on the Secret Service--a revealing and compelling inside look at the Presidential Protective Division (PPD) with stories from some of the author's more high-profile assignments in his twenty-one years of service, where he provided arm's length protection worldwide for Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, and George W. Bush, both as a member of the PPD and the Counter Assault Team. Dan Emmett describes the professional challenges faced by Secret Service agents as well as the physical and emotional toll that can be inflicted on both agents and their families. Within Arm's Length also shares firsthand details about the duties and challenges of conducting presidential advances, dealing with the media, driving the President in a bullet-proof limousine, running alongside him through the streets of Washington, and flying with him on Air Force One. With fascinating anecdotes, Emmett weaves keen insight into the unique culture and history of the Secret Service and the inner workings of the White House"--

A former Secret Service agent revisits his twenty-three-year career, including his time as Ronald Reagan’s bodyguard, in this “engaging” memoir (Publishers Weekly). Joseph Petro served for twenty-three years as a special agent in the United States Secret Service, eleven of them at the White House and four of those as the man on the shoulder of Ronald Reagan. From his days as an investigator in the field, to his time as the man on whom the life of the president depended, Petro’s journey through history is a singular look inside the most discreet law enforcement agency in the world; an unparalleled insight into Ronald and Nancy Reagan; plus an up-close-and-personal view of the late Pope John Paul II, whom Petro protected during his historic and extraordinary ten-day tour of the United States in 1987. The cast of characters in these never-before-told stories ranges from the Reagans and the Pope, to Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Mikhail Gorbachev, Fidel Castro, Margaret Thatcher, François Mitterrand, the Shah of Iran, George H. W. Bush, Dan and Marilyn Quayle, Henry Kissinger, Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford, and would-be assassins. “A close-in view of how ‘the Great Communicator’ charmed critics and won loyal followers.” —The Christian Science Monitor “A fascinating portrait of Secret Service life.” —Library Journal

Adapted from Within Arm'’s Length for a younger audience, a rare inside look at the Secret Service from an agent who protected Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Dan Emmett was just eight years old when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. From that moment forward, he knew he wanted to become a Secret Service agent, one of an elite group of highly trained men and women dedicated to preserving the life of the President of the United States at any cost, including sacrificing their own lives if necessary. Armed with single-minded determination and a never-quit attitude, he did just that. Selected over thousands of other highly qualified applicants to become an agent, he was eventually chosen to be one of the best of the best and provided protection worldwide for Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, and George W. Bush. I Am a Secret Service Agent skillfully describes the duties and challenges of conducting presidential advances, dealing with the media, driving the President in a bullet-proof limousine, running alongside him through the streets of Washington, and flying with him on Air Force One. With fascinating anecdotes, Emmett weaves keen insight into the unique culture and history of the Secret Service with the inner workings of the White House. I Am A Secret Service Agent is a must read for young adults interested in a career in federal law enforcement.