A Secret Service agent assigned to protect Vice President JD Vance has been suspended and placed under criminal investigation for allegedly leaking operational security details to the press — another stunning breach from the federal agency already struggling to do its one job.
The agent is suspected of feeding information to MS Now for a story last week about Vance's planned Marine Two helicopter trip with his son to a golf lesson at Joint Base Andrews. The publication of those travel plans set off alarm bells inside the Secret Service, the FBI, and the White House, where officials "fumed over operational details being described in the press," a source told CNN. Investigators have identified the individual they believe was responsible.
Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi confirmed the probe in a statement: "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." He added that "any conduct that potentially threatens the safety of a protectee will not be tolerated."
The New York Post reported the agent has been placed on administrative leave. The case is now being handled by the agency's internal affairs component.
The MS Now story that triggered the investigation claimed Vance's detail was frustrated with last-minute schedule changes and what anonymous agents called "inappropriate or even unprecedented use" of government resources — specifically, a helicopter ride so the VP's son could make a golf lesson. One source griped to the outlet: "Pence and Harris never pulled anything like that."
An administration official pushed back hard, telling the Daily Caller that the flight from the Naval Observatory to Joint Base Andrews is "the most frequent and routine flight for Marine Two" and was arranged to avoid disrupting the public. The base is secure; a motorcade to a public course would shut down streets and require local police resources. The official noted that previous vice presidents largely did not have young children while in office.
Second Lady Usha Vance has spoken publicly about the family's effort to minimize the disruption a protective detail imposes on ordinary people. "A motorcade just shuts down streets, right?" she told CBS Sunday Morning last month. "It means sometimes people can't get into Mass when they arrive."
The Guardian framed the investigation as part of the Trump administration's "aggressive push against unauthorized leaks," noting that four New York Times reporters were subpoenaed this month over a story about security flaws in Trump's Qatar-gifted Air Force One. The Post made the same connection.
But the real story isn't the administration's leak crackdown — it's that the Secret Service can't keep its own house in order. This is the same agency that failed to prevent an assassination attempt on President Trump. Now an agent on the vice presidential detail is allegedly handing operational details to reporters. The people charged with guarding the nation's leaders can't even stop their own from leaking like a sieve.
The question isn't whether this agent faces consequences. It's how many more are still on the inside, and what it will take before the agency that keeps failing upward is finally held to account.
