Black Secret Service agents will get lump sums as high as $300,000 each in a $24 million settlement of a two-decades-old case that charged the agency with fostering a racist culture.
More than 100 African-American agents argued that the Secret Service regularly promoted white agents over more qualified black agents along with its culture, The Washington Post reported. The agency will not admit wrongdoing or institutional bias in the settlement, but the payouts — with the highest going to eight original plaintiffs — are meant to remedy discrimination the agents said they suffered in job opportunities lost, the newspaper reported.
"At long last . . . black Secret Service agents will not be constrained by the glass ceiling that held back so many for so long," Jennifer Klar, the lead attorney for the black agents, told the Post.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson recognized the settlement in a statement Tuesday in the final days of the Obama administration.
"I am pleased that we are able to finally put this chapter of Secret Service history behind us," Johnson said in the statement. "Had the matter gone to trial, it would have required that we re-live things long past, just at a time when the Secret Service is on the mend. Under Joe Clancy's leadership, the Secret Service has turned the corner, and today's settlement is part of that. This settlement is also, simply, the right thing to do."
The case was first filed when Bill Clinton was president and spotlighted African-American agents who repeatedly asked for promotions between 1995 and 2005, the New York Daily News reported.
The plaintiffs argued that in many instances, white agents with less experience were chosen over them. Ray Moore, the lead plaintiff, was on President Bill Clinton's security detail and was turned down 200 times for promotions, according to the Daily News.
The Secret Service also agreed to start a hotline for agents to report bias, change its hiring procedures, and keep detailed records on promotion factors.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.