Counterintelligence — 2026-08-28

Three Secret Service Officials Placed on Leave as FBI and CIA Investigate Leak of Classified Intelligence

BLUFFBI and CIA involvement signals a criminal leak probe beyond routine internal discipline, though criminal charges against any of the three officials by year's end remain unlikely given the evidentiary demands of prosecution.

The Secret Service placed three non-law-enforcement communications office personnel on administrative leave pending an Office of Professional Responsibility investigation into potential misconduct, the agency confirmed in a statement Tuesday 12. All three, including Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi, lost their security clearances and access to work devices, a source told CNN 2. RealClearPolitics reported the three were made "do not admits" and escorted from their offices Monday as part of a criminal investigation into leaked classified information to the media, with the FBI and CIA involved according to a source 3. A spokesperson for Guglielmi said he "is cooperating fully with everything being asked of him" and did not confirm he was on leave 24. The agency did not identify the officials or specify the alleged misconduct 12.

Analysis
Clearance revocations and simultaneous FBI/CIA involvement push the probe past internal review into criminal leak-investigation territory, raising exposure for the three beyond administrative consequence; Guglielmi's tenure through past crisis responses gives the move institutional weight beyond routine personnel action. Charges against any official by year's end are unlikely, since leak prosecutions rarely meet the evidentiary bar tying a disclosure to a specific individual on that timeline. Confidence is moderate: convergent primary reporting confirms the leave action itself, but the criminal predicate rests on narrower, single-source detail, and the matter may instead reflect internal misconduct unrelated to classified leaks. If charges materialize, Secret Service leadership faces pressure to overhaul communications-office access controls and clearance vetting; an administrative closure leaves current media-contact and clearance practices for comms staff unchanged.

4 sources

Three Secret Service officials placed on administrative leave pending investigation - The Washington Times
3 Secret Service officials placed on leave amid misconduct investigation - CNN
Three Secret Service Officials Placed On Leave Amid Leak Investigation - WLT Report
Secret Service officials placed on leave in inquiry over 'potential misconduct' - NBC News