(NewsNation) — The Secret Service is allegedly spending more than $30,000 each month renting out a Malibu mansion in California to protect President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, according to media reports.
But protecting the first family is nothing new.
The Secret Service is authorized to protect the sitting president and vice president, their immediate families, as well as all former presidents, their spouses and their children under the age of 16. While in office, neither the president nor vice president can decline protection, but their spouses and children could.
Nearly all presidential families have asked for full Secret Service protection for as long as possible, with Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama asking for additional extensions to cover their college-aged children.
The Secret Service budgeted more than $2 billion annually to protect the president and the first family in 2017, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
However, scrutiny over the first families’ comings and going is far from partisan.
The Obama family received backlash for taking trips to Honolulu that cost the Secret Service millions of dollars. The Washington Post obtained documents that showed the Secret Service needed an additional $27 million to protect the Trump family at Trump Tower in New York City for a year so Melania and Barron Trump could still live there.
When he was vice president, Joe Biden faced backlash for collecting $2,200 a month in rent from the Secret Service for renting a cottage on his Delaware property so they could protect him.
The Secret Service did not confirm the media reports on Hunter Biden’s Malibu home.
“Due to the need to maintain operational security, the U.S. Secret Service does not comment on the means, methods or resources to conduct our protective operations,” the Secret Service wrote to NewsNation partner The Hill in an email when asked to confirm the report.
Hunter Biden has faced consistent scrutiny amid an intensifying federal investigation inro his foreign business dealings. A federal grand jury heard testimony in recent months about Hunter Biden’s income and payments he received while serving on the board of a Ukraine energy company, according to two people familiar with the probe.
The president’s son was also found guilty on three federal firearms charges related to lying about his drug use on a form to buy a weapon.