>>16555628 (LB)
'CONGRESS IMPOSED A DUTY . . . TO REPORT CRIMINAL ACTIVITY'
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Only two statutes are even relevant to the asserted protective function privilege. See 18 U.S.C.: 3056(a); U.S.C.: 535(b). Section 3056(a) compels the President and Vice President to accept the protection of the Secret Service but says nothing about an evidentiary privilege. In mandating that the Secret Service be near the President at all times, Congress must have realized that Secret Service members would inevitably witness the President's conduct and hear his communications. Nevertheless, Congress did not create a protective functions privilege.
By contrast, under section 535(b), Congress imposed a duty on all executive branch personnel to report criminal activity by government officers and employees to the Attorney General. According to Section 535(b), the duty to report criminal activity applies "unless . . . as to any department or agency of the government, the Attorney General directs otherwise with respect to a specified class of information, allegation or complaint." 28 U.S.C.: 535(b)(2) (emphasis added). Secret Service employees are not only executive branch personnel subject to section 535(b), but they are also law enforcement officers…
/www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/05/23/congress-imposed-a-duty-to-report-criminal-activity