Feinstein memorial service closed to public due to security concerns

The memorial service for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will no longer be open to the public, her office announced in a statement Thursday.

Feinstein’s Thursday memorial service, which had been slated to be a public event on the front steps of San Francisco City Hall, will now be open to invited guests only, her office said, citing a “larger than expected security perimeter.”

“Unfortunately, due to a larger than expected security perimeter, today’s memorial service at city hall is no longer open to the general public. You will be unable to see or hear the program from outside the perimeter,” the office said in a statement. 

Feinstein’s office said the service will be streamed live at 1 p.m. local time Thursday. 

The memorial service is reportedly expected to include tributes from several prominent politicians, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Vice President Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

On Wednesday, Feinstein’s body lay in state in the rotunda of San Francisco’s City Hall, where she first began her decades-long career in politics. City leaders and residents had a chance to pay respects to the late senator. 

Feinstein died at 90 years old last Thursday at her home in Washington. 

Feinstein became San Francisco’s first female mayor in 1978 following the tragic assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, who was among the first openly gay political figures in the country. Feinstein served in the role for nearly a decade, becoming known for her advocacy during the HIV/AIDS crisis.

She was elected to the Senate in 1992, where she pushed for the assault weapons ban in the 1990s and later played a key role in exposing the CIA’s use of torture and other interrogation techniques. She was one of the chamber’s most prominent women and the longest-serving woman senator in American history.