A Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President JD Vance’s protective detail is under investigation over allegations of leaking sensitive information, according to the agency.
“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,” Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement to Fox News.
The Secret Service declined to discuss the specifics of the investigation, but Guglielmi stressed that “any conduct that potentially threatens the safety of a protectee will not be tolerated.”
The investigation comes just days after MS Now published a report describing growing frustration within JD Vance’s security detail over last-minute personal and family travel requests.
A day after that report, MS Now said Vance’s office scrapped a planned helicopter trip for the vice president’s son’s golf lesson. The Trump administration said the proposed use of Marine Two, the vice president’s helicopter, was based on operational considerations rather than convenience.
“Compared to a motorcade, it drastically decreased the burden on local law enforcement and eliminated the inconvenience of road closures and disruptions to motorists along the long driving route,” the administration wrote in a statement to Fox News.
According to the report, current and former Secret Service agents said previous vice presidents generally avoided using government resources for their children’s personal schedules.
Agents also complained that “off-the-record” (OTR) trips often require them to abandon personal plans and rapidly assemble security operations.
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“The detail is tired of them not giving notice on things and making everything an OTR,” a person familiar with the detail’s frustration told the news outlet. “[Vance] thinks he can still move around like a U.S. senator.”
A spokesperson for JD Vance defended the vice president and praised the Secret Service’s work.
“While protecting a vice president with a large policy portfolio and a young and growing family presents a unique challenge, agents of the Secret Service do so with excellence every day,” the spokesperson said.
JD Vance sworn in as Vice President alongside his wife, Usha.
Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn also pushed back on criticism of the protective detail’s workload, saying agents understand the demands that come with the assignment.
“Our agents work tirelessly to ensure protectees’ safety and security, while also preserving normalcy to the extent possible,” Quinn told Fox News. “We are committed to supporting our personnel, which requires around-the-clock dedication and discipline. This is a job that requires absolute dedication and discipline. There is no room for compromise.”
The reported tensions have reportedly become such a running joke within the detail that some agents created custom challenge coins and stickers poking fun at the frequency of Vance‘s last-minute travel requests, referencing his Secret Service code name, “Bobcat.”
Some of the coins reportedly read, “Bobcat OTR Survivors Club.”
The Trump administration acknowledged that unexpected travel requests are sometimes unavoidable.
“Most past presidents and vice presidents have not had young children, and therefore the detail has not been presented with this nature of protective mandate,” the administration told Fox News.
“The Vice President is also a very active and involved Vice President, more so than recent officeholders,” the statement continued. “His unprecedented diplomatic role, for example, while critically important, has added new demands for a detail used to operating with lead times that are impossible in high-stakes diplomacy.”
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