A United States Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President JD Vance’s protective detail has been placed on administrative leave after being identified as the suspected source of leaked information about the vice president’s travel arrangements.
The leaked information included details of a request by Vance to use a United States Marine Corps helicopter to transport his son to a private golf lesson, prompting an internal misconduct investigation by the Secret Service’s internal affairs unit. The flight was ultimately cancelled because of severe thunderstorms, according to the reports.
Although the helicopter was never used, the request drew criticism within Vance’s security detail over the use of military aircraft for personal travel.
Department of Defense estimates put the operating cost of such helicopters at up to $24,600 per flight hour.
According to internal communications cited in the reports, some personnel expressed frustration over what they viewed as the misuse of government resources.
One individual familiar with the matter was quoted as saying: “That is RIDICULOUS,” adding that “(Mike) Pence and (Kamala) Harris never pulled anything like that.”
The reports also said that members of Vance’s protection team had raised concerns that the vice president and his office were repeatedly requesting assignments they considered improper and seeking unprecedented deployments of federal resources.
The publication of operational details relating to the vice president’s movements reportedly angered senior officials across the White House, the Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United States’ principal federal law enforcement agency.
The case comes as the Trump administration steps up efforts to curb unauthorised disclosures to the media.
In a separate investigation led by FBI Director Kash Patel, federal investigators recently issued subpoenas to four New York Times reporters as part of an inquiry into sources behind reporting on security features of presidential aircraft. A subpoena is a legal order requiring a person to provide evidence or testimony.
