The three were escorted from Secret Service headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Monday and formally designated “do not admit,” meaning they are barred from entering agency facilities, two sources told RealClearPolitics, which first reported on the suspensions. One of those sources said both the FBI and CIA are participating in the inquiry, pointing to a probe with more weight than a routine internal personnel matter.

All three employees are based in the communications office. Placing Secret Service agents or officials on administrative leave and suspending security clearances is standard practice during an investigation and not a confirmation of wrongdoing.

The Secret Service itself has offered a more limited public accounting of the suspensions and probe. In a statement Tuesday, an agency spokesperson said three non-law enforcement personnel had been placed on leave pending a review by the Office of Professional Responsibility, the internal body that handles misconduct cases. The agency did not name the employees, did not describe what they are accused of, and did not address whether the FBI or CIA are involved.

The statement leaned on the agency’s broader mission, with the spokesperson stressing that the Secret Service holds itself to strict standards of professionalism and integrity as it carries out its protective duties, and that its workforce is expected to show unwavering commitment to duty, honesty, and courage. The agency said it could not comment further while the review is underway.

It remains unclear whether the matter under investigation is connected to the furor earlier this year over President Trump’s abrupt, unannounced departure from Turkey – a move reportedly triggered by intelligence pointing to a possible surface-to-air missile threat against Air Force One from Iran.

Guglielmi did not respond to RCP’s phone calls and request for comment.

A pattern of leak investigations

The latest investigation is taking place amid a string of leak-related inquiries that have rattled the Secret Service and the wider Trump security apparatus over the past several months.

Agency personnel were previously questioned as part of a separate leak investigation after details first surfaced publicly about Trump’s decision not to fly out of Turkey aboard the Qatari-gifted aircraft, reportedly because of the suspected Iranian missile threat. That earlier probe was set in motion from inside the White House, with FBI Director Kash Patel involved in getting it off the ground.

Separately, a Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President JD Vance’s protective detail was placed on leave in July after investigators suspected the agent had leaked details about Vance’s security detail and travel schedule. That investigation is still open.

Taken together, the cases point to an agency increasingly consumed with plugging leaks even as it manages 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.

A spokesman with a credibility problem

Guglielmi’s removal adds a new complication to a tenure that has already drawn scrutiny over how forthcoming he has been with the public about the Biden-era Secret Service failures. 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.

Before joining the Secret Service, Guglielmi held communications posts at police departments in Chicago, Baltimore, and Fairfax County, Virginia.