Overview
- Filed on Dec. 18, the lawsuit seeks internal emails and texts from the Presidential Protective Division about Code Pink protesters who disrupted President Trump’s Sept. 9 dinner at Joe’s Seafood in Washington, D.C.
- Judicial Watch also requests any Secret Service correspondence with email accounts ending in @codepink.org to determine how protesters learned of the president’s movements.
- Video and reporting show protesters seated within feet of the president before chanting and being escorted out, while a Secret Service spokesperson has said all diners were screened and security uses redundant layers.
- Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker labeled the restaurant episode “an unbelievable security lapse,” as Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch raised concerns about potential advance notice to demonstrators.
- A separate report said a guest brought a Glock onto Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., which the agency defended by saying the individual was never near the president, and a House task force previously faulted inexperienced personnel during 2024 assassination attempts.