According to two former Secret Service agents who reviewed the video, the detail clearly had to rush and did not expect Clinton to leave at that time. They said the Service generally prefers for the protected individual not to wait for a car to arrive, although that has happened before. In the video, Clinton is leaning against the bollard as a black van pulls up.
One former agent said the risk of waiting was diminished considerably on Sunday by the thick bubble of security surrounding the commemoration. Protective details for Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other city officials were also on hand.
It is also unusual for a detail leader to leave the protected individual’s side, as a Secret Service agent, Todd Madison, is seen doing in the video, to open the van’s doors. Opening the van is typically left to another agent. But because of the rushed nature of the departure, one of the former agents said, another rule of Secret Service protection appears to have carried the day: Whoever is closest to the door must open it.
“Every once in a while, you have to call an audible,” one of the former agents said. “We follow a methodology, not a script.”
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