According to DailyMail.com, Secret Service Director Jim Murray is quitting the agency and joining the popular app Snapchat as chief security officer.
‘Jim embodies the meaning of service over self, and protected the families of U.S. Presidents like they were part of his own,’ said a statement Thursday from the president and first lady. ‘We are incredibly grateful for his service to our country and our family.’
Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service’s chief of communications, told DailyMail.com that Murray put off retiring from the agency for several months.
‘He had the opportunity back in April but chose the end of July so he could not be a distraction from the president’s NATO summit, the Summit of the Americas out in Los Angeles and the G7 summit that President Biden just returned from,’ Guglielmi said.
‘He also wanted to present the Secret Service’s budget to Congress so he chose July 30,’ the spokesperson added.
Donald Trump became sick during the White House COVID pandemic, and Donald Trump was spotted riding in a limo with agents outside Walter Reed. Murray took over as the agency’s head in 2019, and she oversaw this situation.
The Secret Service’s highest pay scale is $189,000. Murray might earn a lot more money by working for Snapchat.
A spokeswoman for Snapchat said Murray will report directly to CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel and that the firm was “thrilled” to have him join the team on August 1.
He will be responsible for looking after the security of the more than 5,000 Snap employees that work all around the world.
Murray’s departure for Snapchat was initially announced by The Washington Post.
Murray, a 27-year Secret Service veteran, took over the top position in May 2019 while serving under previous President Donald Trump.
‘As Director, Murray contributed significantly to the agency’s continued professionalization and growth, and helped the agency navigate the unique challenges presented by the historic COVID-19 pandemic, throughout which the agency continued executing its integrated mission of providing protection to senior elected leaders and investigating crimes targeting our financial infrastructure,’ the Secret Service statement said.
Providing protection for a president who refused to take safeguards against COVID-19 was one of those “special issues.”
According to The Washington Post, 881 Secret Service employees tested positive for COVID between March 1, 2020, and March 9, 2021, according to a report published in June 2021 by the NGO Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics.
477 of them worked for the special agent division, which is in charge of the security for the president and vice president.
Many members of the White House staff and administration notably followed Trump’s example and chose not to wear face masks for the majority of the outbreak.
In the months before the 2020 election and before COVID-19 vaccines were authorised for use, he also held sizable demonstrations.
When Trump was hospitalised for COVID in October 2020 he took a ride outside the Walter Reed medical facility with agents in his vehicle.
‘Never before has the Secret Service run up against a president so intent on putting himself first regardless of the costs, including to those around him,’ Ned Price, now the State Department spokesman, told The Post in August 2020.