Assistant Director James Donahue,
Office of Protective Operations, Mission Readiness
James Donahue is a federal law enforcement special agent with 22 years of experience in the U.S. Secret Service, focusing on the protective and investigative responsibilities of the agency.
On September 15, 2024, Mr. Donahue was appointed to the Senior Executive Service (SES) position of Assistant Director, Office of Protective Operations (OPO). He is one of two Assistant Directors in OPO, with his role and responsibilities resolving to mission readiness of the directorate and agency. AD Donahue ensures the fidelity and preparedness of protective operations, overseeing long-term strategic planning, staffing, financial management, and policy, as well as a number of specific program areas in the OPO directorate. He gained experience in the OPO directorate having served the previous two years as a Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) over the Presidential Protective Division and Special Operations Division. Mr. Donahue was previously certified by the Office of Personnel Management’s Qualification Review Board in 2021 and appointed to the SES position of DAD, Office of Intergovernmental and Legislative Affairs, on November 21, 2021. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing the planning, coordination, and implementation of programs associated with engagement and liaison with external partners including the Department of Homeland Security and Congress.
Mr. Donahue gained experience for these positions supporting the criminal investigative mission of the agency during an SES developmental assignment as a DAD in the Office of Investigations (INV). Prior that assignment, he served as the Special Agent in Charge of the Inspection Division, responsible for internal affairs and anti-harassment investigations, as well as the compliance audit program for the Secret Service.
Before his assignments to the Inspection Division, Mr. Donahue served as an Assistant to the Special Agent in Charge in the Secret Service’s Richmond Field Office in INV. In this assignment, he managed the office’s personnel, as well as the criminal, protective intelligence, and human resources matters for most of Virginia, a district consisting of 88 counties, over 35,000 square miles of area, and a populace of approximately 3 million people.
Prior to these positions, his Secret Service assignments were to the Office of Government and Public Affairs as a staff assistant, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary in the Congressional Internship Program as a law enforcement advisor, the Presidential Protective Division and the Special Operations Division’s Counter Assault Team during the Bush and Obama Administrations, the Forensic Services Division as a polygraph examiner, and the Boston Field Office as a criminal investigator.
Mr. Donahue’s education consists of graduate studies, Master of Arts – Homeland Security Studies – Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA (2018) and Forensic Psychophysiology – Argosy University, Arlington, VA (2006), and undergraduate studies, Bachelor of Arts – Sociology – Yale University, New Haven, CT (2000).