James Murray, U.S. Secret Service director since 2019, is retiring to take a top security post at the California-based social-media company Snap Inc., the parent of Snapchat, reports the Wall Street Journal. Murray had been planning to retire after 27 years with the agency. “Jim embodies the meaning of service over self and protected the families of U.S. presidents like they were part of his own,” said President Biden and first lady Jill Biden. Deputy Director Faron Paramore will take over in an acting role. The agency of 6,500 employees tasked with securing the White House has been at the center of controversies, including a 2012 prostitution scandal and security lapses during the Obama administration.
The Secret Service was in the spotlight last week in testimony before a House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S Capitol. Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to President Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said she was told that Trump wanted to be driven to the Capitol that day and wrestled for the steering wheel with the Secret Service when his order was refused. The agency contested the report. Murray will start at Snap on Aug. 1 as its chief security official and will report directly to the chief executive and co-founder, Evan Spiegel. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that under Murray, “the Secret Service has reinforced its stature as the pre-eminent protective agency in the world and has increased in sophistication and scope its investigative capabilities to meet an increasingly dynamic threat landscape."