A dinner reservation in Washington usually comes with a waitlist — not protest chants and security questions. But when President Donald Trump sat down at a high-end DC steakhouse, Code Pink protesters were already in place, raising fresh alarms about whether the Secret Service is protecting the president… or leaving the door wide open.Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit on December 18 in Washington DC Federal Court demanding that the US government release all internal communications among USSS officials concerning Code Pink protestors at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab in Washington DC on September 9, when President Trump was shouted down by demonstrators, New York Post reported.The lawsuit seeks “all internal emails and text messages among USSS officials in the Presidential Protective Division regarding the presence of Code Pink protestors” and “all emails sent between USSS officials and any email account ending in @codepink.org.” According to court papers, the govt allegedly ignored a Dec. 9 deadline under the Freedom of Information Act to provide the requested material.On Sept. 9, Trump dined with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth at the restaurant. None of the protesters were accused of violence, but Judicial Watch had spent three months trying to obtain information on how they secured advance notice of the President’s closely held movements at an event intended to demonstrate that the city was thriving under new federal security protection.Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch said, “I’m just really concerned about the president’s safety.” He added, “He was almost killed twice supposedly under the protection of the Secret Service and then they walked him into a potentially dangerous ambush.” He also warned, “These people were allowed to get within arm’s length of the sitting president with knives and who knows what else in the restaurant available to them.”Video of the incident showed members of the President’s security detail speaking into hand-held microphones after the disruption began and as the President approached his table. The President himself pointed in an indication that the nearby protesters should be removed. The demonstrators shouted “Free DC. Free Palestine. Trump is the Hitler of our time!”Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker described the episode as “an unbelievable security lapse.” He said, “I can’t believe they would let random people sit in that close proximity to them. That’s crazy. That’s like’s like the days when Abraham Lincoln would ride down Pennsylvania Avenue in his coach and buggy with no protection.”Fitton fears that anyone armed with key information about the President’s movements could potentially harm the commander in chief. Trump survived two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign – one in Butler, Pennsylvania in July, and the other in September at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida – and a subsequent House task force found inexperienced personnel “did not clearly understand the delineation of their responsibilities.” Judicial Watch is also seeking Secret Service documents in connection with those close calls.In a separate incident, the Secret Service failed to detect a guest who brought a Glock handgun onto the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va. while the President was there. “The US Secret Service takes the safety and security of our sites very seriously and there are redundant security layers built into every one,” an agency spokesperson said at the time, adding that the person with the gun was never in close proximity to the President. The agency said all guests at the restaurant were screened before Trump arrived. It declined comment on the lawsuit.
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