Bongino joined the United States Secret Service in 1999 as a special agent,[1] leaving the New York Field Office in 2002 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.[1]