Q&A on the News
Q: Could you please tell me why Hillary Clinton receives Secret Service protection? I read where 65 agents were assigned to her when she traveled to Canada to give a speech.
—Sy Richards, Atlanta
A: Former presidents and their spouses receive Secret Service protection for life. The Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012 eliminated "certain limitations on the length of Secret Service protection for former Presidents and their spouses and children." The Secret Service also protects the children of former presidents under the age of 16.The former law, passed in 1994, protected presidents for 10 years after they left office, but applied only to those presidents first elected after Jan. 1, 1997.
A Secret Service source told CNN.com that Clinton, a former first lady and U.S. Secretary of State, didn’t take 65 agents on a trip to Canada last month. “Although it’s our policy not to discuss specific security measures, in this instance we can say this number is grossly inaccurate and exaggerated,” the source said. The CEO of TCU Place, where Clinton spoke in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, told CNN.com that an employee made a “miscomment” in regard to the number of agents protecting her.
Q: Sabrina Gibbons, an AM 750 WSB personality, has started signing off as Sabrina Cupit. Was she recently married?
—Steve Narrie, Snellville
A: Cupit, who has been with WSB since 2000, married Chris Cupit, the owner of Rivermont Golf and Country Club in Johns Creek, at the Wentworth Mansion in Charleston, S.C., in December, she told Q&A on the News in an email.
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
