A member of Vice President JD Vance's Secret Service protective detail has been placed on leave and is now the subject of both an investigation and a potential criminal inquiry. The allegation: leaking the Vice President's location and operational security details to the press.
The person whose entire job is keeping Vance safe was apparently moonlighting as a source for journalists.
Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service's Chief of Communications, confirmed the investigation in a statement reported by American Wire News. "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," Guglielmi said.
He added: "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."
That's a nice statement. But we're past the point where nice statements fix things.
The leaked information reportedly made its way to CNN and MSNBC, fueling stories about the Vice President's travel arrangements — including claims that Vance used a Marine Corps helicopter to fly his son to a golf lesson. That son, by the way, is a minor. A former Secret Service agent spelled out exactly what that means: "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."
The White House has reportedly called the leaks "treasonous," and the Trump administration has made clear it views unauthorized disclosures as a prosecutable offense. That's the right posture when the leakers aren't random bureaucrats buried in some agency — they're the people standing three feet from the Vice President.
We went through this before. We watched the Secret Service botch protection for President Trump. We watched congressional hearings. We watched leadership changes. And now, barely into the second term, the agency is dealing with an agent on the VP's own detail who allegedly decided his loyalty ran to cable news producers, not the man he was assigned to protect.
"Potential criminal inquiry" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that statement from Guglielmi. Because if an agent on a protective detail is feeding operational movements to journalists — movements that include a minor child — this isn't an HR issue. This is the kind of breach that either ends in a federal courtroom or it tells every future leaker exactly how much risk they're really taking.
The Secret Service motto is "Worthy of Trust and Confidence." When the agent assigned to guard the Vice President is the security threat, the motto isn't aspirational anymore. It's ironic.