New Delhi: A Secret Service agent on US Vice President J.D Vance’s security detail is reportedly under internal review and has been put on administrative leave after being suspected of leaking information on of Vance’s travels for a news article.
According to CNN, sources with knowledge of the matter said that the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) internal affairs branch is conducting the internal review. It remains unclear whether the review will result in any administrative consequences or criminal charges against the agent.
The Secret Service employee is accused of being a source of information for the American news channel MS Now (formerly MSNBC) for a 15 July story titled “Vance’s security detail ‘fed up’ with hastily arranged personal and family travel requests”. The article detailed how agents on Vance’s security detail were allegedly frustrated at the vice president’s demanding and erratic personal travel schedule, which had that overwhelmed his security team.
According to many current and former Secret Service personnel, Vance’s sudden travel arrangements and frequent changes required Secret Service agents to cancel their days off, rush to locations, and hurriedly organize security plans in order to accommodate the vice president.
The story noted that Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance made numerous last-minute travel demands of the Secret Service, including several helicopter trips to look for houses in Virginia. The report also described a notable July incident in which Vance’s planned travel included a flight with his son on a Marine Corps helicopter to a golf lesson. This trip was cancelled for unknown reasons just a day after the MS Now report was released.
“They change everything,” an MS Now source said. “They don’t stick to their schedules, and that costs shit-tons of taxpayer money,” the source added.
According to 2022 Defense Department budget estimates, operating the helicopter can cost American taxpayers between $16,000 and $24,600 per hour. of usage.
There is no official Secret Service policy prohibiting a government helicopter from being used for the transport of a vice president’s child to a recreational event. However, MS Now reported that Secret Service supervisors, both former and current, said that the vice president’s request for a helicopter ride for such a purpose is unprecedented.
They also acknowledged that past vice presidents never utilized such expensive and high level government benefits for the convenience of completing daily purposes—adding that former Second Families’ of the US would also provide advanced notice to the Secret Service of any travel plans and changes.
Another source with knowledge of the golf trip wrote the following in a message about the chopper transport: “That is RIDICULOUS…Pence and Harris never pulled anything like that.”
Sources said that the MS Now coverage angered officials of the Secret Service, FBI, and White House due to the specific details of the US’s second-in-command being released in the press, CNN reported.
In response to questions posed by MS NOW, Vance’s office provided the following statement: “The Vances are grateful to the men and women of the US Secret Service who serve our country with distinction,” the statement said. “While protecting a Vice President with a large policy portfolio and a young and growing family presents a unique challenge, agents of the Secret Service do so with excellence every day.”
The grievances have allegedly led to Secret Service agents creating coins and stickers that mock Vance and his family’s recurrent and last-minute travel changes, in which they used Vance’s Secret Service code name “Bobcat”, according to images reviewed by MS Now.
(Edited by Archishman Ganguly)