Trump taps the leader of his personal detail to run the US Secret Service

(CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to pick his current Secret Service detail leader, Sean Curran, to be the new director of the United States Secret Service, according to multiple sources familiar with the decision.

For the past four years, Curran has led Trump’s detail and is known to have a close, personal relationship with the president-elect, sources said.

Several sources, however, also raised significant concerns that Curran lacks the managerial experience to run an agency as large and complex as the Secret Service. On Trump’s detail, Curran supervised about 85 people. He has never managed the kind of budget or operations of the Secret Service.

Further, multiple sources point out that Curran has never held a position at the agency’s headquarters and is not a member of the Senior Executive Service, which comprises the highest ranks in the service.

Curran would replace acting Director Ronald Rowe, who had lobbied for the job after Kim Cheatle resigned after the first assassination attempt on Trump’s life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. In September, another man in Florida set up a “sniper’s nest” outside of Trump’s golf club as part of an apparent second assassination attempt on Trump.

Curran’s ascent is atypical due to his rank and lack of headquarters experience. Other former agents who later became directors rose through the agency’s headquarters, such as Mark Sullivan and Jim Murray, and were already members of the Senior Executive Service.

However, Curran’s rank fails to capture the responsibility of running Trump’s detail – even during years when Trump was neither president nor candidate. After leaving office, Trump’s risk level far outpaced his position as simply “a former.”

A source familiar told CNN that Curran was active in pushing for more security resources for Trump, and later rushed to the stage as gun fire erupted around him at the Butler rally. While his heroism in the face of crisis is indisputable, his leadership leading up to the Butler rally has come under scrutiny.

A blue-ribbon panel commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security recommended a leader with outside experience to serve as Secret Service director, and a major overhaul of operations and attitude.

In its report, the panel wrote that it found “evidence that Secret Service personnel, including those associated with the protection of former President Trump, viewed themselves as operating under an informal mantra of, effectively, ‘do more with less,’ which is inconsistent with achieving excellence or “no fail” in the Service’s protective mission.”

Further, the panel found “an insufficiently experienced-based approach by the former president’s detail regarding its selection of agents to perform certain security critical tasks.”

Curran’s name has been circulated for weeks as a possible contender for director. Even while other names were floating as replacements, Rowe initiated sweeping changes and personnel moves.

Some of Rowe’s changes included the creation of an Aviation and Aerospace Division to manage the agency’s drone and counter-drone strategies, and Operational Communications and Integration Division to direct radio and other communications.

It’s unclear if Curran will maintain Rowe’s changes.

As Curran steps into his new role, he will be surrounded by recent leadership changes. Several top leaders have left in recent months. Other top-level jobs, including deputy director and assistant director of field operations, have acting — not permanent — personnel. A USSS leadership web page lists two assistant director positions as vacant, though an agency spokesman later told CNN that they have been filled.

This story has been updated with additional details.

The-CNN-Wire
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