The men and women of the United States Secret Service are all that stand between the leader of the free world and total chaos. They put their lives on the line every day to protect the President and the First Family. But unbeknownst to the American public, systemic problems have been building within the Secret Service - some simmering since the agency’s earliest decades - and the time to solve them has already run out. Without radical change in the way we protect our presidents, the most important job in the world will suddenly pose serious dangers to the President and the nation.

Former Secret Service Officer Gary Byrne, who took readers behind the curtain of the Clinton White House in the #1 New York Times bestseller CRISIS OF CHARACTER, reveals the inside story of his former agency in SECRETS OF THE SECRET SERVICE.

In his new book, Byrne shows readers how the Secret Service developed from the days of George Washington’s “Life Guards” into its present form. Along the way, problems arose that were, in many cases, allowed to fester until the agency hit the tipping point it faces today. There were plenty of indications all was not well - including the tragic assassination of four presidents and attempts on the lives of many more - but most of these warnings went unheeded.

Today, the Secret Service is hamstrung by a culture in which politics and careerism take the focus away from good, solid law enforcement efforts.

Byrne provides eyewitness accounts and new reporting to reveal that politicians under Secret Service protection routinely break protocols to serve their personal needs, while at the same time, the Secret Service doesn’t do nearly enough to discipline those who break protocols within its own ranks. The result is an unsafe and potentially deadly situation at the very nerve center of American government.