DeVos security detail could cost taxpayers over $26M during Trump’s first term

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s federal security detail is reportedly expected to cost U.S. taxpayers more than $26 million by the end of President Trump’s first term.

The total cost of DeVos’s security detail for fiscal 2019 came out to $6.24 million, marking a lower amount from the U.S. Marshals Service’s projection of $7.74 million and a decrease from the $6.79 million total in fiscal 2018, Politico reports.

Her security detail is projected to total nearly $7.9 million between now and the end of September 2020, a U.S. Marshals Service spokesperson told Politico. It is unclear why the agency’s projection increased for the following fiscal year.{mosads}

The service did not disclose the number of officials who make up the detail but added that it is “commensurate with the existing threat and based on USMS protective service requirements, experience and methodology.”

The service “regularly conducts threat assessments on Ms. DeVos to determine threats to the secretary’s safety,” according to an official statement obtained by Politico.

It’s rare for cabinet members in a president’s administration to receive a security detail from the Marshals Service, as these officials typically get protection through their own agencies, Politico notes.

The agency was initially assigned a protective detail for DeVos in February 2017 at the request of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who made the ask after her controversial confirmation and an encounter with protesters at a middle school, according to CNN.