FOIAFiler Request Library
How to Request U.S. Secret Service Records
Use the Secret Service FOIA/Privacy Act program for USSS agency records. This can include administrative records, policy, spending and procurement material, financial-crime records, FOIA logs, historical records, communications, and some records tied to protective activity.
Likely records custodian
United States Secret Service (USSS) ↗Department of Homeland Security
Starter request language
Records maintained by the United States Secret Service concerning [event, policy, subject, expenditure, communication, investigation, or record series], including [specific record types], for the period [date range].
Make the request easier to process
- Identify the event, trip, subject, office, or record series.
- Use a defined date range.
- Name the record types you actually want: emails, memoranda, invoices, policies, threat assessments, logs, photographs, video, or reports.
- Avoid asking for current protective vulnerabilities, operational tactics, or broad categories that predictably implicate security and law-enforcement exemptions.
Watch for this: Secret Service records can involve personal privacy, law-enforcement techniques, active investigations, and protective-security interests. A narrow request for identifiable administrative or historical records is usually easier to process than “all records about presidential security.”
Search before filing
Check the agency’s reading room and FOIA.gov’s government-wide search first. If the records are already public, you can avoid a new request entirely.