Secret Service Director James Murray announces retirement, taking job at Snapchat

Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
·2 min read
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WASHINGTON – Secret Service Director James Murray announced his retirement Thursday following a nearly three-decade career at the agency he has led for the past three years.

"It has been the highest honor and privilege to call this exceptional agency my home for more than half my life," Murray said in a statement.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Murray would be leaving the agency at the end of the month to oversee security for a technology and communications company.

Snap Inc, the parent company of Snapchat, confirmed that Murray would be joining the social media company.

“We're thrilled to welcome Jim Murray to Snap and look forward to him joining our team on August 1st," the company spokesperson said.

While Murray's long service was immediately lauded by President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the move also comes as the service has been thrust into the spotlight by a special House committee's investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to former President Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, told the panel last week that the Secret Service resisted Trump's repeated entreaties to join the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Hutchinson said she was told that an angry Trump at one point physically lunged at an agent and sought to re-direct the Secret Service vehicle as it was returning him to the Oval Office. Hutchinson was recalling an account provided by Anthony Ornato, a former White House official who now serves as a Secret Service executive.

Hutchinson's testimony came under scrutiny last week after both Ornato, the then-White House deputy chief of staff in charge of operations, and Robert Engel – the agent who was allegedly accosted by Trump – told the Secret Service that the president did angrily demand to be taken to the Capitol but that he never grabbed Engel or the steering wheel.

Guglielmi, the Secret Service spokesman, said Murray's retirement decision had no connection with the recent committee hearing, adding that the director had been offered the private sector job in April. The White House also said there was no connection.

"There's no relation at all," said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. "This has been in talks for several months."

"Jim embodies the meaning of service over self, and protected the families of U.S. Presidents like they were part of his own," the president and first lady said in a joint statement. "We are incredibly grateful for his service to our country and our family."

A member of the U.S. Secret Service stands guard outside Marine One, with President Joe Biden aboard, on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, July 6, 2022, in Washington. Biden is traveling to Cleveland.
A member of the U.S. Secret Service stands guard outside Marine One, with President Joe Biden aboard, on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, July 6, 2022, in Washington. Biden is traveling to Cleveland.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Secret Service Director James Murray announces retirement