Sean Curran, “the unknown” leading the Secret Service
The picture is immediately legendary: Former President Trump’s fist is in the air, blood oozing from his right ear and an American flag flying over his head.
Sean Curran is the majority of the anonymous U.S. Secret Service agents in July Butler, Pennsylvaniawhen a bullet cuts off Mr. Trump’s ear, his skull is within a few inches of range. In the photo, Curran is the agent on the right, and he and his team stand out after he and his team flock to the former president to protect him.
“A part of me may still not be processed. I haven’t stopped,” Curran told CBS News in his first news interview. “I don’t think I can get him out of sight. Not to the point where I’m going to overwork, Instead I felt like I needed to be with him to make sure things were done the way I needed them not want to leave him.
Evan Vucci / AP
His relationship with the president has been established in nearly seven years every day, including two assassination attempts and court hearings “too many to count.” “I mean we – change life,” Curran said. After his second inauguration, Mr. Trump appointed him as Secret Service Director.
Curran declined to disclose what Mr. Trump said on his way to and from the court or in his arraignment (or on any occasion), except saying that Trump remains calm “every day, it’s on and off the camera. ”.
If Trump is convicted in four criminal trials and eventually sentenced to jail, the Secret Service has developed some preliminary plans for how to accommodate Mr. Trump.
“We had a serious conversation about it, and I told him once that he and I might be close to the service headquarters.”
But Curran was serious. “Look, if it is, I’ll sit next to him.” “That’s what I care about him. That’s the level of protection I feel like he deserves the level of protection any of our protectors deserve. I’m not doing anything for him matter.”
During the post-election transition period, two federal cases against Trump were dropped. The New York conviction did not result in jail. The then Secret Service Director Ron Rowe will make a decision on Mr. Trump’s safety.
“I think we might be treating it like a website (the prison), and we might have to have some parts of the facility,” Curran said. “You know, it’s still a law, whether or not someone is in prison. The law is still We must protect them.”
Curran, who grew up in New Jersey, joined the Secret Service in 2001. Barack Obama is part of the Secret Service’s Noble Protection Division, followed by Obama’s presidential protection details. Curran was recognized as the Agent of the Year in 2007. After working as assistant director of investigation, he was promoted to Secret Service reporting to host the 2016 presidential campaign, and later a conservation intelligence team. During Mr. Trump’s first term, Curran became deputy director on Trump’s details, and then in 2021, one of the youngest agents ever, was appointed as agent.
When his first term ended, Trump was politically a non-Getra role, while the senior Secret Service leadership team focused on protecting then-President Biden. According to other agents familiar with the situation, the headquarters basically told Curran that he had built a post-presidential protection details himself.
Curran and his deputy Matt Piant tried to warn headquarters that they could not see Trump as the controversial former president prepares for his third White House campaign For the ordinary former president. They believe that like the security bands provided by former President Obama or Clinton, a typical protection scope is not enough to accommodate Mr. Trump’s timeline between campaign rallies and court hearings.
Curran won’t talk about Butler’s failure or what happened within minutes of the shooting. But he suggested that too many leaders lost contact with officials and agents in the field.
“Good ideas, big ideas are hindered by people with less experience,” Curran said, adding that leaders at higher positions do not always understand the reality of teams in the field. “I understand what people on the ground need.”
A recent change in the agency’s team is embedding a team of six attorneys into Secret Service’s field operations – not to oversee personnel, but to support them in response to protesters or other situations.
Curran is seeking bigger congressional grants while Doge is cutting institutions. He said it is not clear whether Elon Musk will attempt to lay off staff from the Secret Service. So far, there is no sign.
Curran disagrees with the goal Set by former director Kimberly Cheat By 2030, the Secret Service will be 30% of the female workforce, a national campaign to diversify law enforcement personnel. “When you highlight a specific group or person, you won’t get the best qualified candidate,” he said. Diversity, equity and inclusion or the “DEI” initiative. “My only goal is to get the right people on site and provide the best qualified applicants for this job, no matter their position, whatever they are.”
Richard Giuditta is a New Jersey attorney with Curran as legal counsel Appointed Directorwill go to the White House to change the gears of Mi Ye in uniform. “One is quiet,” Judata said.
During a break with agent precedent, Giuditta was the first political appointment to serve as senior secret service consultant.
Not everyone within the agency determines that Curran is the right person to work—usually it is not the workforce that chooses to lead the Secret Service and its more than 8,000 members.
“I think overall, people see who I am,” Curran said. “They see me there. They see I just had a vest a month ago, and now I’m here. If you’re from history,” Look, that’s not what you see here. I’m a different path.
Curran, who had been on the side of Mr. Trump at the Golf Course, came out at meetings and meetings and realized that his relationship with Trump could be the feed for critics.
“He always showed respect for me and the division of protection,” Curran said. “We have a bond, which may be lifelong.”
Any president will restrict his freedom of movement, although Curran refuses to name any specific incident. “He had a lot of hard conversations with me if I could talk about this extensively,” he said. “He always had a lot of respect for my opinion and what we needed to do, and he never looked back.”
Butler, Pennsylvania and the moment of the photo made Curran a public figure overnight. Now, he has book covers, billboards, T-shirts, tattoos on his face.
Curran hopes not to approve it. “I’m a personal character,” he said. “Essentially, our character is in the shadows. We’re not going to be part of the picture. I think the pun is intended.”
Last week, Curran received a call from a former Secret Service agent who probably knows the unnecessary spotlight better than anyone else. Clint Hill, 93, is known for jumping behind the president after the president was shot and killed. HILL Died for one day on Friday After contacting Curran.
“I think he feels we’re in touch,” Curran said. “So he wants to talk to me. That’s it.”
