section_path: Secret Service and law enforcement career (1995–2011)
section_name: Secret Service and law enforcement career (1995–2011)
paragraph_text: Secret Service and law enforcement career (1995–2011)
  
  Bongino worked as a police officer for the New York City Police Department from 1995 to 1999.
  
  Bongino joined the United States Secret Service in 1999 as a special agent. In 2002 he left the New York Field Office to become an instructor at the Secret Service Training Academy in Beltsville, Maryland. In 2006, he was assigned to the Presidential Protection Division during George W. Bush 's second term. He remained on protective duty after Barack Obama became president, leaving in May 2011 to run for the U.S. Senate.
  
  Also in 2011, The Baltimore Sun reported that Bongino was the lead investigator of a car rental fraud scheme. His work contributed to two people being indicted on federal wire fraud charges.
  
  Bongino was criticized by former colleagues at the Secret Service for using his Secret Service background as part of his run for political office and for his claim of having secret information based on conversations he overheard in the Obama White House. A former colleague criticized him for trying to use his proximity to President Barack Obama in his political career: "He's trying to draw attention to himself and he's hijacking the Secret Service brand. That's all he's got going for him." Bongino said he had access to "high-level discussions" in the White House.
  
  He rejected birtherism, the claim that President Obama was born outside the United States.
  
  Bongino worked as a police officer for the New York City Police Department from 1995 to 1999.
  
  Bongino joined the United States Secret Service in 1999 as a special agent. In 2002 he left the New York Field Office to become an instructor at the Secret Service Training Academy in Beltsville, Maryland. In 2006, he was assigned to the Presidential Protection Division during George W. Bush 's second term. He remained on protective duty after Barack Obama became president, leaving in May 2011 to run for the U.S. Senate.
  
  Also in 2011, The Baltimore Sun reported that Bongino was the lead investigator of a car rental fraud scheme. His work contributed to two people being indicted on federal wire fraud charges.
  
  Bongino was criticized by former colleagues at the Secret Service for using his Secret Service background as part of his run for political office and for his claim of having secret information based on conversations he overheard in the Obama White House. A former colleague criticized him for trying to use his proximity to President Barack Obama in his political career: "He's trying to draw attention to himself and he's hijacking the Secret Service brand. That's all he's got going for him." Bongino said he had access to "high-level discussions" in the White House.
  
  He rejected birtherism, the claim that President Obama was born outside the United States.