MAXINE Walters “abused post 9/11 rule to get ‘VIP concierge service’ on a flight to attend Derek Chauvin’s trial,” it has been claimed.
Congress has been “abusing” a program created after 9/11 that was designed to protect the flying public, an association for federal air marshals has said.
The Air Marshal National Council, which represents some of the nation’s 2,000 air marshals, said the problem began after the January 6 Capitol protests.
In the wake of those events, some lawmakers are said to have started requesting security, not just on Capitol ground but to and from their districts and even to holiday destinations.
The Transportation Security Administration, which runs the Federal Air Marshal Service, started reassigning agents from “high risk” commercial flights so they could accompany members of Congress instead, a Fox News report says.
This angered some sky marshals, as their primary duty is to protect the public.
Capitol police, and if necessary the US Secret Service, are responsible for protecting lawmakers.
Then-President George W Bush handed the responsibility to protect the flying public to the air marshals following 9/11 and increased the number of agents from 33 to more than 4,000.
“Air marshals can only be assigned to high-risk flights. That means flights that have been deemed through our vetted process that have a security risk,” said Sonya Hightower LoBasco, executive director of the Air Marshal National Council. “When these processes are violated and they’re taken advantage of and they are just tossed to the side now as if they don’t matter, we’re really looking into creating a major problem for ourselves in the aviation domain.”
Records seen by Fox News indicated some of the traveling lawmakers already had security details, while others who requested the service skipped their scheduled flights.
Lawmakers from both parties used the service – both for official business as well as personal travel.
Democrat Rep Maxine Waters flew from Washington DC to Minneapolis on April 17 to attend the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, according to a complaint filed with the House Committee on Ethics.
According to the complaint, Waters was already accompanied by two armed Capitol Police and two US Secret Service agents when she allegedly requested two air marshals and two more marshals on touchdown to escort her in the airport.
Those claims though were denied Friday night by both the US Capitol Police and the Secret Service with them stating neither agency provided in-flight protection for her.
“Congresswoman Maxine Waters utilized numerous government resources inappropriately,” the complaint reads. “Federal Air Marshals were removed from a ‘High Risk’ flight to cover Ms Waters flight to Minnesota. The High Risk flight took off with no armed law enforcement on board leaving a gap in National Security.”
“Air marshals for Miss Waters trip were assigned high risk missions, they were removed from those missions and assigned to Miss Waters mission on top of her already armed security detail from the Capitol Police,” Hightower said. “That was not an official business trip. We still don’t have any justification as to why government resources were utilized to fly Miss Waters out to Minnesota.”
“The USCP did not have any officers or agents on the plane with Rep. Waters,” a spokesman for the US Capitol Hill Police said.
Another air marshal familiar with the incident told the news outlet: “It’s ridiculous. Meanwhile, there are 30,000 other flights with no armed agents.”
TSA said in a statement: “Following the events of January 6th at the US Capitol, the Transportation Security Administration enhanced security and law enforcement presence throughout the transportation system to include airports and aboard aircraft to protect the traveling public, including Members of Congress.”
While federal air marshals (FAMs) say that harassment of lawmakers in public is nothing new, they say congressional flights are not their main concern.
“Placing FAMs on aircraft simply because a member of Congress requests it is an egregious misuse of government resources,” David Londo, president of the Air Marshal National Council, said in a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General on April 20. “The FAMs are now taking agents off of regularly scheduled “high risk” flights to put them on flights with members of Congress, that in most cases have their own armed federal security details onboard already. It has become akin to a type of extremely expensive concierge service for Congressional members.”
Any member of Congress who wants security should call the Capitol Hill Police, which calls a TSA liaison, who then calls or inputs the request in the air marshal’s mission operations computer.
Hightower claims “all flights were covered regardless of the VIP being on board.”
It is uncertain if Capitol Hill Police apply any “threat assessment” to the congressional request, or are all simply approved, no matter the rank or destination.
