Secret Service Officials Sent Racist E-Mails, Jokes About Rev. Jesse Jackson

By Margaret Lyons in News on May 14, 2008 8:17PM

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. and Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. filed FOIA requests following reports that high-ranking Secret Service agents circulated racist e-mails, one of which joked about the elder Jackson's assassination.

The ten e-mails, some of which contain slurs and porn, were uncovered as part of a discrimination case ten black Secret Service agents are bringing against the organization. According to the New York Times,

A March 3, 2003, message describing Mr. Jackson as the "Righteous Reverend" was passed among several Secret Service supervisors. The message, about a missile striking an airplane in which Mr. Jackson and his wife were traveling, concludes, it "certainly wouldn't be a great loss and it probably wouldn't be an accident either."

Representative Jackson told CBS 2 that he has "a lot less confidence in the Secret Service" now, and that the e-mails show "there's a problem at the highest ranks of the Unites States Secret Service that deserves all of our attention." [NYT, CBS 2]