Secret Service ‘command post’ to protect Hunter Biden costs $360k a year

Secret Service agents assigned to protect President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden use a $30,000 per month California rental house as a command post, according to an ABC News report.

Mr Biden, an attorney and former lobbyist who has recently been making a living as a visual artist, currently resides in Malibu, California, where he lives in a rented house which sources told ABC costs roughly $20,000 per month to rent.

Under US law, the agency is responsible for protection of the president, vice president, and both of their families. Because Mr Biden’s security detail requires a base of operations near his home, the agency has chosen to rent a house in the same neighbourhood to use as command post.

Don Mihalek, a retired Secret Service agent, told ABC paying rent for command post locations near protectees represents “the cost of doing business” for the agency, which is required to provide Mr Biden with protection by law.

"Typically, wherever a protectee sets up their residence, the Secret Service is forced to find someplace to rent nearby at market value," he said. “This isn’t new — the service has had to do this in past administrations, and unfortunately the housing market now has driven the prices up substantially”.

While $360,000 per year to rent a command post near Mr Biden may seem to be a steep price, it’s just a fraction of what protection for his father’s predecessor’s adult children cost the agency in the half-year following the end of his term.

When Donald Trump left office in January 2021, he authorised an additional six months of protection for his adult children and several staff members.

According to reports, the Secret Service spent approximately $1.5m to guard the Trump children and their spouses during the six-month period after Mr Trump left the White House.

Mr Trump, who currently lives at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, also reportedly charges the agency for rooms in the facility.