Judicial Watch received 31 pages of newly released material regarding the July 23 death of former Obama chef Tafari Campbell, the organization said in a news release Tuesday.
The records showed that both boats operated by the U.S. Secret Service at the site that evening failed to operate properly, forcing agents to borrow a boat from the groundskeeper.
“[Supervisory Special Agent] [redacted] attempted to start one of the boats but had difficulty lowering the motor,” an emailed memo stated.
“I sprinted to the [command post], grabbed the keys and spring back toward the boats,” it continued.
But the other boat operated by the Secret Service also would not function as designed.
“A similar issue occurred with the motor on the second boat,” the email stated. “We jumped into a third boat belonging to the groundskeeper and it worked without issue.”
The surviving witness to Campbell’s drowning had previously insisted that “it was too late” because Cambell had already drowned, so there may have been no practical effect from the fact that neither of the Secret Service boats was operational.
Nonetheless, one would expect the elite organization tasked with the safety security of the nation’s current and former leaders to make sure its equipment functions as it should. Had there been an opportunity to save Campbell, it’s certainly possible that the delays could have cost him his life.
The records, many written by a Secret Service agent whose name was redacted throughout, also for the first time identified Campbell’s paddleboarding partner as “Ms. Taylor.”
Will you vote in the 2024 election?
Judicial Watch, a self-described “conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, which promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law,” according to its website, filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act in late October to obtain the records.
“The records were obtained in response to an October 25, 2023, FOIA lawsuit against the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after it failed to respond to an August request for Secret Service video recordings and other records relating to the death of the Obamas’ personal chef, Tafari Campbell, in July 2023 in the Edgartown Great Pond behind the Obamas’ estate on Martha’s Vineyard,” according to the news release.
You can read the entire response from DHS below.
DHS FOIA Response by The Western Journal on Scribd
“It is disturbing that Secret Service boats did not work for this emergency situation,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in the news release. “This new information perhaps explains why the Secret Service is still hiding video related to the tragic drowning.”
Records previously obtained by Judicial Watch indicated that “no foul play” had been detected during the investigation of Campbell’s death, which was ruled accidental.
Campbell was not wearing a life vest at the time of his death, and he was not tethered to his paddleboard.
