Three officials working in the U.S. Secret Service communications office were placed on administrative leave and stripped of their security clearances Monday, pending an investigation reportedly involving the CIA and FBI.
While the Secret Service has not officially disclosed the names of the individuals or the specific nature of the allegations, multiple reports indicate the probe involves leaked classified or sensitive information to the media.
According to RealClearPolitics reporter Susan Crabtree, controversial Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi is among the three officials placed on leave. Guglielmi and the other officials were reportedly escorted out of their offices in Washington D.C. and designated as “do not admits,” which bars them from entering agency facilities.
The revocation of security clearances and device access is reportedly standard procedure while the Office of Professional Responsibility conducts its review. However, one source told Crabtree that both the FBI and CIA are involved in the inquiry, indicating that the probe has “more weight than a routine internal personnel matter.”
There is speculation in the media that the potential leaks are linked to President Trump’s recent security movements in Turkey.
Last month, Trump secretly switched planes while departing Turkey, following a credible Iranian assassination threat. The operation involved Trump boarding a presidential plane publicly before being smuggled to a smaller C-32A military aircraft via an airport catering truck to evade a suspected shoulder-fired missile attack.
The Secret Service and military reportedly orchestrated the ruse during the NATO summit in Ankara, leaving journalists and some White House staff on the original plane. Trump later confirmed he complied with security directives, stating he was moved to a “different plane” while downplaying the danger.
“I just follow what they’d like to do. So I go by Secret Service. And the military. They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say,” Trump said, adding, “I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats.”
The incident remained classified until reports emerged earlier this month, prompting an internal investigation with some help from FBI Director Kash Patel, according to RCP.
In a separate incident last month, a Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President JD Vance’s protective detail was placed on leave after allegedly leaking details about Vance’s security detail and travel schedule.
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As RCP notes, these alleged leaks have come “amid an unusually turbulent period for presidential protection—one that has included multiple attempts on Trump’s life and the still-simmering questions over the Turkey episode.”
Guglielmi, who has held his role as Chief of Communications for the USSS since March 2022, is a “spokesman with a credibility problem” following multiple “Biden-era Secret Service failures,” said Crabtree.
As the Secret Service’s top spokesman, he was the agency’s public face through some of its most damaging recent failures, including the string of attempts on Trump’s life – chief among them the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, which forced the resignation of the agency’s director and triggered an overhaul of some of the Secret Service’s practices, including its use of drones and drone-mitigation systems.
Guglielmi’s handling of that episode is itself a point of controversy. Within less than 24 hours of the Butler shooting, RealClearPolitics reported that Secret Service resources had been diverted away from Trump’s rally to cover a same-day campaign stop by then-first lady Jill Biden in nearby Pittsburgh. Guglielmi moved quickly to knock the story down, calling it “very wrong” on X.com rather than answering the detailed questions RCP had emailed him.
A week later, an investigation led by Sen. Chuck Grassley turned up internal Secret Service emails showing the agency had assigned 12 personnel to Biden’s Pittsburgh event compared with just three for Trump’s rally – essentially corroborating the central claim in the report Guglielmi had dismissed.
Guglielmi also falsely denied an initial report that Sean Curran, current Secret Service director and the leader of Trump’s security detail during the 2024 presidential campaign, had requested additional security resources but was rebuffed by Secret Service leadership. Kimberly Cheatle, who was hand-selected by then-first lady Jill Biden, was the director at the time of the attempted assassination of Trump at the Butler rally.
“There’s an untrue assertion that a member of the President’s team requested additional security resources & that those were rebuffed,” he said in a statement. “This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo.”
Within a few days, additional reporting undermined that statement.
His career includes senior positions at the Baltimore, Chicago, and Fairfax County police departments.
The investigation is ongoing, and no formal charges or detailed findings have been released.
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