Secret Service Sidelines Three in Criminal Leak Probe
Secret Service Sidelines Three in Criminal Leak Probe
The News
Three U.S. Secret Service officials — including the agency's communications director, Anthony Guglielmi — have been placed on administrative leave as investigators look into what the agency calls "potential misconduct," and what two sources describe as a criminal probe into leaked classified information.
All three work in the agency's communications office. All three have lost their security clearances and access to their work devices, a source familiar with the decision told CNN.
The Secret Service confirmed the suspensions but would not name the officials or say what they are accused of.
What the agency says
"Three non-law enforcement personnel at the U.S. Secret Service have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into potential misconduct," an agency spokesman said in a statement Tuesday. "Per policy, this incident is being investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility. We are unable to comment further at this time."
The statement added that the agency "is committed to upholding the highest standards of professionalism and integrity in fulfilling our zero-fail mission of protecting the President and other high-level government officials."
The Independent reported the three were placed on leave pending the outcome of the professional standards office investigation. CNN said it asked Guglielmi for comment and did not hear back.
Timeline
President Trump was moved onto a different aircraft leaving the NATO summit in Turkey after intelligence pointed to a surface-to-air missile threat from Iran, according to reporting on the maneuver. Trump was unapologetic afterward: "I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane."
Some inside the Secret Service were questioned in a leak investigation over reports that Trump did not take the Qatari-gifted plane out of Turkey because of possible Iranian threats, CNN reported. FBI Director Kash Patel helped stand up the initial leak probe from inside the White House.
A Secret Service agent on Vice President JD Vance's detail was placed on leave after investigators suspected the agent leaked information about Vance's travel. That investigation is still open.
Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall had his top secret clearance stripped by the Pentagon over what it called unauthorized disclosure of classified information about Air Force One's capabilities to a media outlet, RedState reported. Kendall has threatened to sue.
The three Secret Service officials were walked out of their offices and designated "do not admits," according to Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
Crabtree published the account on X. CNN reported the suspensions and identified Guglielmi. The Secret Service issued its statement.
Reactions
Crabtree wrote that it is "unclear if the leaks to the media pertained to the controversy over President Trump's secret evacuation from Turkey because of intelligence about a surface-to-air missile threat to Air Force One from Iran." One source told her the FBI and CIA are involved in the investigation.
On the right, the leaks themselves are the scandal. Retired Air Force officer Buzz Patterson, a former military aide to President Clinton, told Fox News Digital of the Air Force One disclosure: "I hope that they prosecute this to the fullest. Whoever leaked that, in my opinion, and having been involved in this, was highly placed in that process." He added: "There's only a few people who actually know exactly what's going down, and that's by design. So if somebody leaked it, it was somebody involved in the process, and that scares the hell out of me."
On the left, the suspensions are being read as part of a wider crackdown on the press. Raw Story noted the Justice Department has subpoenaed New York Times journalists who reported on security problems with Trump's Qatari jet, went after a Times freelancer over a story about a failed top-secret mission in North Korea, and that federal agents seized digital devices from journalist Max Blumenthal as he returned from Iran.
What's Next
The Office of Professional Responsibility investigation is the formal track, and the agency says it will not comment while it runs. Administrative leave is not a finding of wrongdoing, and none of the three has been charged.
The open questions: whether the probe is tied to the Air Force One reporting, whether the FBI and CIA involvement produces a criminal referral, and whether Guglielmi — the man who spoke for the agency through the Butler assassination attempt and the upheaval that followed — returns to his job.
More
Guglielmi was the Secret Service's public voice during some of the hardest stretches in its recent history, including the assassination attempts on Trump. The Butler, Pennsylvania shooting cost the agency its director and forced sweeping changes. Before the Secret Service, Guglielmi ran communications for the Chicago and Baltimore police departments during periods of civil unrest.
Suspending the people whose job is to talk to reporters, in an investigation into what reporters were told, is its own kind of statement.
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