Remember all the hatred directed towards Bush adviser Karl Rove? No matter how much left wing radicals threatened him while he worked for Bush, he never had Secret Service protection. In fact, no one outside of the president, his wife, the vice president, his wife, the chief of staff, the national security adviser, and the homeland security adviser have ever had Secret Service protection. That was, until 2009. Apparently, Iranian born Valerie Jarrett is the real POTUS, because she now has Secret Service protection, like a president or vice president.
Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett apparently has Secret Service protection.
This is highly unusual, and of course, costly. I’ve never really heard of someone who is merely a senior White House aide getting assigned Secret Service agents.
My understanding is that at the senior levels of the Bush White House, at least during the latter days, only the president and his family, the vice president, the chief of staff, the national security adviser, and the homeland security adviser were assigned Secret Service agents.
It’s possible that Jarrett has received enough specific and credible threats to justify Secret Service protection, or that the Secret Service has for some other reason calculated that she needs bodyguards. But it’s also possible this is a case of oddly overdoing it – and overusing taxpayer resources.