A Secret Service agent on Vice President JD Vance’s security detail is under internal review and has been put on administrative leave after being suspected of leaking information for a news story that included details about Vance’s travel, a source familiar with the matter said.
A second source also said officials had identified a person believed to have been leaking information about Vance.
The Secret Service confirmed the inquiry in a statement, though it did not detail what, specifically, the agent was suspected of disclosing.
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“A member of the Vice Presidential Protective Division is the subject of an administrative investigation, and potential criminal inquiry, involving allegations of compromising operational and information security. While we will not comment on the specifics of this matter, one principle is unequivocal: any conduct that undermines the trust and confidence between a protectee and their protective detail is fundamentally incompatible with our mission and will not be tolerated.”
The agency added that:“any conduct that potentially threatens the safety of a protectee will not be tolerated.”
The review is being conducted by the agency’s internal affairs component, and it remains unclear if any possible administrative punishment or criminal charges could be forthcoming.
The employee is suspected of having been a source for a recent story on MS NOW about agents on Vance’s security detail dismayed by the purported burden the vice president’s personal travel schedule has placed on his security team. As part of its coverage, MS NOW also described Vance’s planned travel, including flying with his son on a Marine Corps helicopter to a golf lesson, plans that were later aborted.
There have long been concerns within law enforcement and military circles over the challenges Vance’s often unpredictable personal and professional travel schedule places on the hundreds of security and logistics people who support his movements. The issue has been particularly acute for the Secret Service, which has faced staffing shortages that require agents to work longer hours in a high-stress protection job that leaves little room for error.
However, the MS NOW story caught the attention of Secret Service, FBI, and White House officials, who fumed over operational details being described in the press.
A White House official decried the leaks of the vice president’s movements as “treasonous,” adding that the vice president and his family were uneasy over them and what the disclosures might signal about their protective detail. A former agent noted that the leak exposes an “intrinsic vulnerability within the Secret Service” that poses operational security risks.
“You telegraphed movement of two protectees, one of which is a minor, and it puts them in the spotlight. The whole purpose is to keep them out of the spotlight. This is negligence at the highest degree.”
The MS NOW story reported that there was a “budding morale problem” on the team of agents assigned to Vance and his family.
The agents, the story said, were frustrated by last-minute travel demands, requiring them to cancel days off or drop other plans. It also reported that the plan to use a government helicopter for a golf lesson was unusual, noting that current and former Secret Service supervisors said it had no precedent and that “prior vice presidents eschewed using such expensive government perks for the convenience of their children’s schedule.”