Ronald Kessler Talks About Breaking the Secret Service Scandal

The author and former “Post” reporter received a phone tip that kicked off a media frenzy.

Written by Harry Jaffe | Published on April 23, 2012

Photograph by Flickr user Gage Skidmore.

When a Secret Service agent phoned
Ronald Kessler on April 13 and tipped him off that agents in Cartagena, Colombia, were being investigated for partying with prostitutes,
he was chagrined but not surprised.

“He was one of the agents who believes the President is in jeopardy because of cost-cutting and laziness,” Kessler says.

The call to Kessler was the initial tip that would lead to a media frenzy and the most serious scandal to rock the Secret
Service in decades. Kessler developed his sources as the author of
In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect.

His first call was to the Secret Service to confirm the tip. The spokesman said there had been “misconduct” and “agents were
being withdrawn from Columbia,” where President Obama was scheduled to attend a summit.

Kessler’s next move was to e-mail
Marcus Brauchli, executive editor of the
Washington Post. He immediately called and outlined his scoop.

“I gave it to him directly,” Kessler tells
The Washingtonian. “He was really excited. I said, ‘You can have the story. Just credit me.'”

The
Post broke the story the next day and noted in the seventh paragraph that it was “alerted to the investigation” by Kessler.

Kessler, 68, is the chief Washington correspondent for Newsmax, a conservative website. So why slip the tip to the
Washington Post?

“Newsmax lets me work with other media,” he says, “and the
Post, where I still have a relationship, has greater impact and has become a fair and trustworthy paper under Katharine Weymouth
and Marcus Brauchli.

“I have a relationship with the paper,” he adds. “I wouldn’t call it loyalty.”

Kessler worked as a reporter at the
Post from 1970 to 1985. Since leaving the
Post he’s written a number of best-selling nonfiction books, as well as writing for Newsmax.

Once the story broke, Kessler did more than 100 interviews and appearances, including all three network nightly news shows,
the
Today show, and a Telemundo show.

“It’s been wild,” he says.

Reaction from the agency has been mixed.

“Many agents I talked to are thanking me,” he says. “I represent them and their causes. Other agents are very defensive and
resent the bad news getting out. I’m not sure it would have become public if that agent had not called me.”

Kessler’s Secret Service book came out in 2009. He’s maintained ties with many agents, and he’s worried.

“On one hand the agents are very brave and dedicated.
They would take a bullet for the President,” he says. “Then there’s
the Secret Service management. They say they can make do with
less, the agency is the greatest, and everything is fine.” But,
he says, “it’s not fine–the agency does not back its agents.”

Kessler says Secret Service agents make do with
inferior firearms and less training, and adds, “It could result in an
assassination.”

This post has been updated from an earlier version. We apologize for any confusion.