Why Secret Service protection for Donald Trump is different than for other ex-presidents

The legal woes of Donald Trump have cast a new light on the role of those federal agents assigned to protect him and other former presidents for the rest of their lives: the U.S. Secret Service.

There they were, accompanying the 45th president as he made his way into a Manhattan courthouse earlier this month to be fingerprinted and arraigned on 34 felony counts.

Meanwhile, current and former officers assigned to Trump are part of another investigation of the former president, reportedly having to testify at a Washington, D.C., grand jury as part of the investigation into classified documents seized at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. 

All this, along with other potential cases, including his involvement with the Jan. 6 riots, and accusations of 2020 election interference in Georgia, at least raise the possibility that Trump could be convicted, and perhaps, incarcerated.

CBC News looks at the role of the U.S. Secret Service in protecting former presidents, the challenges of Trump, and whether they would accompany him if he were sent to prison.

Although the U.S. Secret Service was founded in 1865 — created to combat counterfeiting of U.S. currency after the Civil War, according to the Secret Service website — it began protecting presidents in 1901 after the assassination of president William McKinley in Buffalo, N.Y.

The protection for sitting presidents, which remains today and can't be rejected, also extends to their spouses and immediate family

But in 1958, the Former Presidents Act was passed which, beginning 1965, would provide for a lifetime of protection for former presidents, their spouses and their children, up to the age of 15. (Protection of a spouse would terminate in the event of remarriage).

There have, however, been some tweaks throughout the years.

Even though the adult children of presidents are supposed to lose their protective detail when the president leaves office, both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have signed directives authorizing the Secret Service to provide a period of extended protection for their children, according to CBS News.

It's the responsibility of the Secret Service to protect former presidents at all times, meaning, "they will oversee and directly coordinate all levels of security for wherever [they] go," said Tim Miller, a former Secret Service agent.

But the level of security is "all based on whatever the Secret Service, through its intelligence and coordination capabilities, determines is appropriate for the protecting," said Miller.

As for the number of agents assigned to a former president, that really depends on potential threats and how long they've been out of office.

"Even a former president could be could be a goal of terrorist," said Ronald Kessler, author of In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect.