Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters is accused of abusing the privilege of Federal Air Marshals for her flight to Minneapolis, essentially creating her own VIP “concierge service.”
Waters was so out of line with her demands that Federal Air Marshals were removed from a “High Risk” flight to accompany her on her flight to the Minneapolis protest last month.
Maxine Waters was already traveling with two Secret Service Agents and two armed US Capitol Police but she demanded her own Air Marshals as well.
The “High Risk” flight took off with no Federal Air Marshals on board “leaving a gap in National Security,” the complaint read.
“Congresswoman Maxine Waters utilized numerous government resources inappropriately,” the complaint reads. “Federal Air Marshals were removed from a “High Risk” flight to cover Ms. Waters flight to Minnesota. The High Risk flight took off with no armed law enforcement on board leaving a gap in National Security.”
Fox News reported:
“Air marshals can only be assigned to high-risk flights. That means flights that have been deemed through our vetted process that have a security risk,” said Sonya Hightower LoBasco, executive director of the Air Marshal National Council. “When these processes are violated and they’re taken advantage of and they are just tossed to the side now as if they don’t matter, we’re really looking into creating a major problem for ourselves in the aviation domain.”
One such flight, according to a complaint filed with the House Committee on Ethics, involved Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who flew from Washington, D.C., to Minneapolis on April 17 to attend the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin. Waters was already accompanied by two armed Capitol Police and two U.S. Secret Service agents when she allegedly requested two air marshals and two more marshals on touchdown to escort her in the airport.
“Air marshals for Miss Waters trip were assigned high risk missions, they were removed from those missions and assigned to Miss Waters mission on top of her already armed security detail from the Capitol Police,” Hightower said. “That was not an official business trip. We still don’t have any justification as to why government resources were utilized to fly Miss Waters out to Minnesota.”
“Placing FAMs on aircraft simply because a member of Congress requests it is an egregious misuse of government resources,” David Londo, president of the Air Marshal National Council, said in a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General on April 20. “The FAMs are now taking agents off of regularly scheduled “high risk” flights to put them on flights with members of Congress, that in most cases have their own armed federal security details onboard already. It has become akin to a type of extremely expensive concierge service for Congressional members.”
