DHS Secretary Mayorkas personally denied RFK Jr.'s Secret Service request, documents show

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas personally denied Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s request for a Secret Service detail to protect him as a presidential candidate, records show. 

Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog, released the records regarding Kennedy's request Tuesday after obtaining the documents through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Kennedy had asked Homeland Security to provide him with Secret Service protection in May 2023, while he was still running as a Democratic candidate against President Joe Biden. Kennedy has since left the Democratic primary to run as an independent candidate.  

"I decline to identify Candidate Kennedy for United States Secret Service protection at this time," Mayorkas told Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle in a letter in July. Mayorkas said the decision was made "in accordance with" federal law and "in consultation with the Candidate Protection Advisory Committee."

Although the letter denying Kennedy's request was addressed to Cheatle, he also copied members of the Candidate Protection Advisory Committee, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Kennedy said on X, formerly Twitter, earlier this month that he requested Secret Service protection three times, all of which were denied. He is circulating a petition to demand Biden give him protection. 

The Secret Service began providing protection to presidential candidates after Kennedy's father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated during his 1968 White House run.

"It is simply despicable that Secretary Mayorkas refused needed Secret Service protection for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. "That it took a federal FOIA lawsuit to force out this information speaks volumes."

Judicial Watch released the documents regarding Homeland Security's denial of protection for Kennedy on the same day that the House impeached Mayorkas over his handling of the southern border crisis.

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