Secret Service Communications Chief and Two Staffers Suspended in Misconduct Probe

The U.S. Secret Service put three of its own communications staffers on administrative leave Tuesday night, pending an internal investigation into what the agency is calling only "potential misconduct."

The three are Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi and two other members of the Secret Service's press office, according to CBS News, CNN and the Associated Press, all of which cited officials or sources familiar with the decision. None of the outlets identified the other two staffers by name.

As part of the standard process for an internal probe, all three lost their security clearances and access to their government-issued devices, officials told CBS News. CNN reported the same detail, noting that pulling clearances and devices is routine practice during these kinds of investigations, not necessarily a sign of the severity of the underlying allegations.

A Secret Service spokesperson confirmed the leave in a statement carried by CBS News, CNN, the AP and Turkey's Anadolu Agency: "Three non-law enforcement personnel at the U.S. Secret Service have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into potential misconduct." The spokesperson said the matter is being handled by the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility and declined to elaborate further.

The agency added it is "committed to upholding the highest standards of professionalism and integrity" in its "zero-fail mission" of protecting the president and other senior officials. The statement offers no information about what actually happened.

CNN was first to report the suspensions, and every other outlet in this story, including CBS News, the AP, Anadolu Agency and The Independent, is working off that same reporting or from officials confirming the same basic facts. Nobody has independently broken new information about what Guglielmi or his colleagues are accused of doing.

As of Wednesday morning, no charges have been filed and no findings have been announced. This is an open personnel investigation, not a conviction or even a formal allegation laid out publicly. The Office of Professional Responsibility hasn't said what it's looking at, and the agency isn't commenting beyond the leave itself.

Guglielmi is not some anonymous bureaucrat. He's been the public face of the Secret Service through some of its roughest years, including the Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt on Donald Trump that led to then-Director Kimberly Cheatle's resignation and a broader shakeup of the agency. Before that, he ran communications for the Chicago and Baltimore police departments during periods of serious civil unrest, according to CNN.

His suspension lands in the middle of an already messy summer for the agency. CNN reported that a member of Vice President JD Vance's security detail was placed on leave after investigators suspected the agent leaked information about Vance's travel schedule. That inquiry, described by the agency as both an "administrative investigation" and a "potential criminal inquiry," followed reporting from MS NOW that some agents had privately griped about short-notice travel demands from Vance and his family.

Separately, CNN reported the agency has also faced a leak investigation tied to reports that Trump skipped using the Qatari-gifted plane during a visit to Turkey this summer over possible Iranian threats. FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly helped set up that initial leak probe from inside the White House, per CNN's sourcing.

And the agency is dealing with yet another live threat matter. The Independent reported that the Secret Service acknowledged awareness of a video broadcast on Iranian state television that appears to threaten Barron Trump, the president's youngest son. Spokesman Nate Herring said in a statement that the agency "investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees" but won't discuss "matters of protective intelligence."

These investigations are separate and there is no reporting showing them connected to the Guglielmi suspension.

A legitimate question is why an agency already under fire for security lapses, including the fact that Trump has faced at least three assassination plots in the past two years and an armed man breached a perimeter at the Washington Hilton in April during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, is now also investigating its own communications shop.

The Secret Service has not said whether Guglielmi's suspension is connected to how the agency has handled public messaging around any of these other controversies, including the Turkey leak probe or the Vance detail investigation. CBS News reported it reached out to Guglielmi for comment and got no response. CNN said the same.

Until the Office of Professional Responsibility finishes its review, or until the agency says more, this remains an open personnel matter with no public findings. The next thing to watch is whether the Secret Service releases any results of that internal review, or whether it stays as unexplained as the leave itself.