RFK Jr. Seeks Restraining Order Against Repeat Home Intruder, Requests Secret Service Detail
Attorney Robert Kennedy Jr., who is being denied an early Secret Service detail, seeks a restraining order against a repeated home intruder.
Attorney Robert Kennedy Jr. is requesting Secret Service protection and seeking a restraining order against a man who has attempted to break into his house twice.
Monday, Mr. Kennedy asked a court to issue a restraining order against the man who was identified by police as the intruder in the presidential hopeful’s home, Jonathan Macht.
Mr. Macht was arrested twice at Mr. Kennedy’s Los Angeles home on the same day in late October. Mr. Kennedy was at home during both attempts.
Mr. Kennedy has used the incident as evidence to support his request for a Secret Service detail, which is typically afforded to major candidates within 120 days of the general election for president.
Some exceptions have been made to this policy. In the 2008 campaign, President Obama was afforded Secret Service protection earlier in the campaign than usual because of the risks he faced being a Black man running for president.
Despite the fact that presidential candidates are not normally afforded protection at this stage of the campaign, Mr. Kennedy portrayed his situation as if he is being denied something candidates are typically afforded at this point in the campaign.
“Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection,” Mr. Kennedy said in a July tweet. “But not me.”
Mr. Kennedy’s campaign did not immediately reply to a request for comment from the Sun. The Department of Homeland Security, the department the Secret Service is managed under, is responsible for determining who qualifies as a major candidate in need of protection.
A recent survey of battleground states from the New York Times and Siena College indicated that, in a matchup between President Biden, President Trump, and Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Kennedy enjoys 24 percent of support.
After his initial request was denied in July, Mr. Kennedy expressed disappointment with the decision, saying that his “campaign’s request included a 67-page report from the world’s leading protection firm, detailing unique and well-established security and safety risks aside from commonplace death threats.”
The embattled head of the American Conservative Union, which hosts the Conservative Political Action Conference, Matt Schlapp, called the administration’s decision not to provide security for a Kennedy “disgusting.”
“We all know the Kennedy family history, and Robert Kennedy Jr. has had some very serious security problems,” Mr. Schlapp said. “Joe Biden’s decision not to provide Kennedy with secret service protection is disgusting.”