WASHINGTON – The Secret Service agreed Tuesday to pay $24 million to settle a two-decade-old case in which more than 100 black agents have alleged that the agency fostered a racist culture and routinely promoted white agents over more qualified African-Americans, according to documents filed in court and interviews with representatives of both sides.
As part of the deal, which is the result of a last-minute push in the waning days of President Barack Obama’s administration, the agency admits to no wrongdoing or institutional bias.
But the payments to the agents – including lump sums as high as $300,000 each to the original eight plaintiffs – are intended to remedy the sting of the discrimination the agents claim they suffered and the job opportunities they lost, according to interviews with representatives from both sides.
Jennifer Klar, the lead attorney for the black agents, described her clients as thrilled with a result they hope will end future discrimination in the agency.
“At long last … black Secret Service agents will not be constrained by the glass ceiling that held back so many for so long,” Klar said.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, whose agency includes the Secret Service, said the resolution was “simply the right thing to do.”
“I am pleased that we are able to finally put this chapter of Secret Service history behind us,” Johnson said in a statement. “Had the matter gone to trial, it would have required that we re-live things long past, just at a time when the Secret Service is on the mend.”