The U.S. Secret Service has placed three of its own employees on administrative leave while it investigates what it calls “potential misconduct,” the agency confirmed Tuesday, August 25, 2026. One of the three is Anthony Guglielmi, the agency’s Chief of Communications and its top spokesman since March 2022.
All three worked in the Secret Service’s communications office and are described by the agency as non-law enforcement personnel — not special agents or Uniformed Division officers. The identities of the two officials besides Guglielmi have not been made public.
Key facts
- Who: Anthony Guglielmi, Chief of Communications since March 2022, plus two unnamed colleagues from the communications office
- What: All three placed on administrative leave pending a misconduct investigation
- When: Agency confirmed the leave Tuesday, August 25, 2026
- Handling it: The Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility
- Status: No criminal charges have been reported against any of the three; their security clearances were revoked, and they lost access to work devices and agency facilities
What the agency has said
In a brief statement, the Secret Service said: “Three non-law enforcement personnel at the U.S. Secret Service have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into potential misconduct.” The agency has not detailed what the alleged misconduct involves.
The Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility is handling the case. As part of the leave, the three had their security clearances revoked and lost access to their work devices and agency facilities — steps described in reporting as common practice during such internal investigations.
No criminal charges have been reported against any of the three.
What’s confirmed, and what isn’t
The Secret Service has not said publicly what triggered the investigation. Several news outlets have reported, without confirmation from the agency, that the review concerns how classified or sensitive information may have reached the press. Those reports remain unconfirmed by the Secret Service itself.
Guglielmi’s background and his response
Guglielmi was named Chief of Communications in March 2022 by then-Director James M. Murray. Before joining the Secret Service, he led public affairs and communications for police departments in Chicago, Baltimore and Fairfax County, Virginia.
His attorney, Gregg Bernstein, defended him in a statement: “Anthony Guglielmi is a professional of deep integrity whose decades-long public record advocating for local, state and federal agencies speaks for itself.” A spokesperson for Guglielmi added that he is “cooperating fully with everything being asked of him.”
What happens next
The Office of Professional Responsibility’s review is ongoing, and the Secret Service has not announced a timeline for when it will conclude or what the outcome might be. Until then, Guglielmi and his two colleagues remain on administrative leave, without clearances or device access, while the agency’s internal investigators do their work.
This case is unrelated to two other recent Secret Service leave episodes: a July 2026 investigation into a member of Vice President JD Vance’s protective detail over suspected leaks of security and travel information, and the 2024 leave of several Pittsburgh Field Office agents following the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Neither of those cases is connected to this week’s leave of the three communications-office employees.