Zero Fail

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The first definitive account of the rise and fall of the Secret Service, from the Kennedy assassination to the alarming lapses of the Obama and Trump years—from Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Carol Leonnig “This book is a wake-up call, and a valuable study of a critically important agency.”—The New York Times A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Carol Leonnig reported on the Secret Service for nearly a decade, bringing to light the secrets, scandals, and shortcomings that plague the agency today—from a toxic workplace culture to dangerously outdated equipment to the deep resentment within the ranks at key agency leaders, who put protecting the agency’s once-hallowed image before fixing its flaws. The Secret Service was born in 1865, in the wake of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but its story begins in earnest in 1963, with the death of John F. Kennedy. Shocked into reform by its failure to protect the president on that fateful day in Dallas, this once-sleepy agency was radically transformed into an elite, highly trained unit that would redeem itself several times, most famously in 1981 by thwarting an assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan. But by Barack Obama’s presidency, the once-proud Secret Service was running on fumes and beset by mismanagement and mistakes in judgement: break-ins at the White House, an armed gunman firing into the windows of the residence while confused agents stood by, and a massive prostitution scandal among agents in Cartagena, to name just a few. With Donald Trump’s arrival, a series of promised reforms were cast aside, as a president disdainful of public service instead abused the Secret Service to rack up political and personal gains. To explore these problems in the ranks, Leonnig interviewed dozens of current and former agents, government officials, and whistleblowers who put their jobs on the line to speak out about a hobbled agency that is in desperate need of reform. With Donald Trump’s arrival, a series of promised reforms were cast aside, as a president disdainful of public service instead abused the Secret Service to rack up political and personal gains. To explore these problems in the ranks, Leonnig interviewed dozens of current and former agents, government officials, and whistleblowers who put their jobs on the line to speak out about a hobbled agency that’s in desperate need of reform. “I will be forever grateful to them for risking their careers,” she writes, “not because they wanted to share tantalizing gossip about presidents and their families, but because they know that the Service is broken and needs fixing. By telling their story, they hope to revive the Service they love.”