We know almost nothing about this story…and that’s a big part of the problem.
The chief spokesman for the United States Secret Service, Anthony Guglielmi, has now been placed on administrative leave along with two other agency communications employees, while the Secret Service investigates what it calls “potential misconduct.”
Their security clearances and access to government devices have reportedly been suspended. The government has not disclosed what they allegedly did. Guglielmi’s lawyer says he is fully cooperating and maintains his innocence.
The agency has disclosed remarkably little about the investigation, other than that its Office of Professional Responsibility is handling it. Guglielmi’s attorney, Gregg Bernstein, says his client is a man of “deep integrity” who is fully cooperating. And until investigators disclose more, Americans should demand answers without pretending unanswered questions are already proven facts.
Other circumstances, discussed by Jonathan Gregory at Instagram:
[This follows] two explosive leaks that compromised presidential security: first, the revelation of a clandestine Air Force One aircraft-swap maneuver executed through a catering cart to evade detection, and second, granular details of Vice President JD Vance’s protective movements that never should have left a secure briefing room. These breaches occurred under Guglielmi’s watch and handed adversaries a playbook on how the Trump administration moves its principals.
Guglielmi did not arrive at the Secret Service as an obscure civil servant. Before joining the agency, he held prominent communications positions with the Chicago, Baltimore, and Fairfax County police departments. (Note that these are all left-wing citadels.)
He subsequently became the public face of the Secret Service and was chosen for that role by Team Biden, which notoriously packed law enforcement and intelligence agencies with partisan Democrats. That makes his current issues particularly noteworthy.
For years, Americans have been told to trust official explanations from government agencies, while those agencies have become increasingly politicized and increasingly hostile to scrutiny. I’ve described this entrenched federal bureaucracy and its political sympathies as the Democratic Party Deep State (DPDS).
For the past 18 months, DPDS operatives in law enforcement, the DOJ, and intelligence agencies have been furiously deleting emails and text messages regarding January 6 and other DPDS operations. Guglielmi may or may not be one of them, and he deserves a presumption of innocence.
What remains unknown is the central question: What, exactly, did he allegedly do?
Being placed on administrative leave isn’t a finding of guilt, and there’s presently no public evidence establishing that Guglielmi committed a crime. The Secret Service has not publicly identified the alleged misconduct.
Nevertheless, this is no ordinary bureaucratic employee. Guglielmi has been the agency’s chief communications official since 2022, promoted by the POC/LGBT committee that was operating Joe Biden like a Muppet — and this was the man responsible for explaining the Secret Service to the American public during some of the most serious security crises in modern presidential history.
The man whose job was to explain the Secret Service’s actions is himself under an internal misconduct investigation. And the timing raises questions.
Guglielmi’s suspension comes amid a period of extraordinary scrutiny of the Secret Service. The agency has been dealing with the aftermath of multiple threats against President Donald Trump, including at least three assassination attempts and other security incidents. It is also investigating a separate alleged leak involving a member of Vice President J.D. Vance’s security detail.
That does not establish that Guglielmi was involved in any leak. But it does explain why the development is attracting so much attention.
According to CBS News, Guglielmi and the two other employees lost their security clearances and access to their government devices as part of the investigation. Officials described those measures as standard procedures during internal investigations. The New York Post has reported that the investigation is connected to suspected leaks of sensitive information, and that the FBI and CIA are involved.
The Secret Service is not the Department of Agriculture. Its mission is protecting the president, the vice president, and other designated individuals, such as the First Family. Its credibility depends upon operational security, internal discipline, and public confidence.
The agency’s own statement says its personnel must maintain an “unwavering commitment to duty, honesty, and courage.” Fine. Then Americans have every right to ask whether those standards were violated — and, if so, how.
The answer may ultimately be mundane. It may turn out that Guglielmi committed no serious wrongdoing whatsoever. Administrative investigations sometimes end that way.
But if the investigation concerns sensitive leaks, as some reporting suggests, the public deserves to know whether government personnel leaked information concerning presidential security, whether anyone endangered a protected person, and whether the people responsible for safeguarding the nation’s most important political figures were themselves compromising that security.
That question is more important than partisan politics.
THE ARTFUL DILETTANTE 