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Secret Service agent suspected of leaking Vance's travel details · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: Today, the Secret Service confirmed that one of its own
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  Speaker 1: agents is under internal review, though it declined to say
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  Speaker 1: exactly why. A source tell Seed And the agent who
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  Speaker 1: protects Vice President Vance and his family is suspected of
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  Speaker 1: leaking information for a news story.
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  Speaker 2: The piece by MS now revealed that some in the
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  Speaker 2: Vance security detail are quote fed up with unpredictable last
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  Speaker 2: minute requests, including the VP planning to fly his son
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  Speaker 2: on a military chopper to a golf lesson. The trip
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  Speaker 2: was reportedly canceled due to weather. CNN Senior correspondent Josh
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  Speaker 2: Campbell is joining us now at the latest. Josh, what
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  Speaker 2: are you learning here?
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  Speaker 3: Well, a very unusual development here, But as you mentioned,
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  Speaker 3: we're hearing that a Secret Service agent that is on
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  Speaker 3: or was on Vice President JD. Vance's detail is now
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  Speaker 3: under internal review. A law enforcement source tells me they've
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  Speaker 3: also been placed on administrative leave as this investigation continues.
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  Speaker 3: We've got a statement from the Secret Service today confirming
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  Speaker 3: our reporting from overnight. All REAGI. Part of that statement,
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  Speaker 3: they say that a member of the Vice Presidential Protective
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  Speaker 3: Division is the subject of an administrative investigation and potential
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  Speaker 3: criminal inquiry involving allegations of compromising operational and information security.
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  Speaker 3: They go on to say that any conduct that undermines
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  Speaker 3: a trust and confidence between a protect tea and the
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  Speaker 3: protective detail is fundamentally incompatible with our mission and will
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  Speaker 3: not be tolerated. Now, as you mentioned, this all stem
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  Speaker 3: from that report by ms NOW that quoted different Secret
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  Speaker 3: Service sources. They describe this budding morale problem within the
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  Speaker 3: team of agents assigned to Vance. They were concerned about
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  Speaker 3: frequent last minute travel demands, requiring them to cancel days off.
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  Speaker 3: They were also concerned reportedly about Vance's use of government
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  Speaker 3: vehicles to include a helicopter to go to a golf
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  Speaker 3: lesson at taxpayer expense. Now, look, we've heard from sources
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  Speaker 3: that for months have been concerned about what they describe
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  Speaker 3: as the often chaotic schedule of the vice president, including
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  Speaker 3: his personal schedule. That within law enforcement in military circles,
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  Speaker 3: people may understand that in order for the vice president
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  Speaker 3: to move to travel that sometimes involves hundreds of people
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  Speaker 3: who have said that, you know, oftentimes this kind of
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  Speaker 3: a radic start and then stop and then reschedule obviously
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  Speaker 3: has reverberating effects. It's worth pointing out that for the
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  Speaker 3: Secret Service, especially this has been concerning because they face
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  Speaker 3: staffing shortages and they have a very serious mission, a
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  Speaker 3: no fail mission. We of course have reached out to
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  Speaker 3: ms NOW for comment on the incident.
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  Speaker 1: Guys, Josh, are there any legitimate questions here about how
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  Speaker 1: the Secret Service was used here, for I mean the
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  Speaker 1: possibility of travel not related to the Vice president's work.
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  Speaker 3: Well, two things I think can be true with this
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  Speaker 3: story is this is highly unusual to see this type
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  Speaker 3: of leak investigation within the Secret Service. They obviously take
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  Speaker 3: the mission very seriously. They have close access to the
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  Speaker 3: government's most senior leaders, so this is not something you
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  Speaker 3: often hear about. But to your point, it does raise
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  Speaker 3: the question was there such concern among this team that
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  Speaker 3: they felt that the only option was to try to
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  Speaker 3: share this information concerns that NOW reported that We've heard
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  Speaker 3: ourselves about the use of some of these taxpayer equipment
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  Speaker 3: for travel, So again it does raise important questions. But
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  Speaker 3: of course, for the Secret Service itself that's conducting this
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  Speaker 3: criminal investigation, they have no tolerance for any of this,
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  Speaker 3: and so we'll obviously have to wait and see where
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  Speaker 3: this goes. We don't know if there will be administrative
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  Speaker 3: penalties or perhaps even potential criminal charges here all.
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  Speaker 2: Right, Josh, thank you so much for that.
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  Speaker 1: Let's speak about this now. See and senior law enforcement
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  Speaker 1: analysts Andy McCabe, former deputy director of the FBI. So first, Andy,
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  Speaker 1: good to have you here. Secret Service says the investigation
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  Speaker 1: involves allegations of compromising operational and information security based on
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  Speaker 1: what you know about this story with details about a
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  Speaker 1: vice president using federal resources for family needs, would that
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  Speaker 1: qualify as compromising security?
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  Speaker 4: You know, technically, Jim, any information about where the vice
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  Speaker 4: president is going to go, when he's going to go,
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  Speaker 4: and how he's going to get there is operational information.
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  Speaker 4: Those are the operations that the detail does, right, their
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  Speaker 4: operational responsibilities to protect him, to transport him, to do
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  Speaker 4: it safely. So yes, I think that that information does
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  Speaker 4: fit that description, and compromising information security is just kind
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  Speaker 4: of a way of saying the same thing, like he
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  Speaker 4: is being at least accused of sharing information that he
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  Speaker 4: was supposed to hold confidential.
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  Speaker 1: The review is being conducted by the agency's Internal Affairs department.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure that strikes fears in the hearts of any
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  Speaker 1: officer involved. Can can you explain what that process would
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  Speaker 1: look like for the Secret Service.
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  Speaker 4: Sure, I mean, and that is you know, I should
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  Speaker 4: say that's the appropriate way to handle this. This is
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  Speaker 4: someone who is thought to maybe have shared operational details
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  Speaker 4: about his assignment, which is the vice president's detail, with
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  Speaker 4: the media. So that needs to be substantiated and has
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  Speaker 4: to be investigated by someone.
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  Speaker 5: It's appropriate that it should be investigated.
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  Speaker 4: By their internal you know, internal affairs division or bureau,
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  Speaker 4: because what you're looking at here is most likely a
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  Speaker 4: violation of policy that could be characterized as workplace misconduct
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  Speaker 4: if in fact it's substantiated. The reference in the public
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  Speaker 4: statement to possibly criminal seems like a bit of an
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  Speaker 4: overkill at this point. It's hard for me to imagine
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  Speaker 4: what criminal statute. Even if he shared those sorts of details,
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  Speaker 4: it's hard to imagine how that would allegedly violate a
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  Speaker 4: criminal statue.
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  Speaker 1: There's a common thread between this case and the one
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  Speaker 1: involving the president's new air Force one and how they're
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  Speaker 1: now going after the New York Times for confidential sources.
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  Speaker 1: In that you can understand the security element right, because
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  Speaker 1: you wouldn't want any information out there about how the
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  Speaker 1: vice president is family travels or where or when or
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  Speaker 1: under what circumstances, just as you wouldn't want to expose
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  Speaker 1: anything that might threaten the president's safety as well regarding
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  Speaker 1: well his aircraft. However, in both cases, are there not
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  Speaker 1: legitimate questions right that the public might want to want
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  Speaker 1: to know? I mean, if you look at the New
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  Speaker 1: York Times case, if the jet that was gifted from
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  Speaker 1: Cutter does not keep the president adequately safe, is there
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  Speaker 1: a compelling public interest in some of that information getting
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  Speaker 1: out there?
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely there is, and I think, as you've noted, there
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  Speaker 4: is a very consistent thread here between these two stories,
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  Speaker 4: and that is the information that's made its way out
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  Speaker 4: to the public is information that's basically embarrassing to the protectee,
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  Speaker 4: either the vice president or the president himself. And this
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  Speaker 4: administration does not like to be embarrassed. No administration does.
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  Speaker 4: But this administration is decided to be very harsh on
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  Speaker 4: the people involved in things that they perceive as being
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  Speaker 4: undermining their image or their reputation.
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  Speaker 5: And so you're going to I think this Secret Service.
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  Speaker 4: Agent is going to go through a very rough experience
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  Speaker 4: and a tough investigation here, because if they were willing
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  Speaker 4: to subpoena the toll records of journalists at the New
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  Speaker 4: York Times and family members of those journalists to get
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  Speaker 4: to the bottom of who leaked that piece of information
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  Speaker 4: about the jet. There's no limit to what they'll try
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  Speaker 4: to do to an actual employee of the Secret Service.
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  Speaker 5: So this one, this one's not going to go away
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  Speaker 5: very quickly.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Folks who are employed by governments are more exposed,
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  Speaker 1: are they not to this kind of thing? I mean
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  Speaker 1: not just getting fired, right, or or administrative penalties, but
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  Speaker 1: potentially criminal penalties.
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  Speaker 5: Absolutely, they're very exposed.
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  Speaker 4: And you know what you mentioned before, like the legitimate
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  Speaker 4: public interest in these stories of either danger or abuse
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  Speaker 4: of government resources, things like that. There is no question
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  Speaker 4: as a legitimate public interest there. But it's always tough
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  Speaker 4: on the government employee because as a government employee, your
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  Speaker 4: first responsibility is to do your job, and that may
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  Speaker 4: mean protecting that information and keeping it confidential. It's not
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  Speaker 4: really your job to satisfy the legitimate public interest. That's
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  Speaker 4: the role of the media, of course, and therein lies
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  Speaker 4: the persistent tension between members of the government and members
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  Speaker 4: of the media. And honestly, that tension is a good thing. Right,
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  Speaker 4: we have to have information security about information involving the
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  Speaker 4: safety and security.
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  Speaker 5: Of the President the vice president.
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  Speaker 4: Good examples there, but also waste fraud, abuse, things.
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  Speaker 5: That the taxpayers should be aware of.
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  Speaker 4: That's certainly well within the media's realm to pursue those stories. So,
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  Speaker 4: you know, I think you're seeing that tension come to
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  Speaker 4: life in a very extreme way under this administration.
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  Speaker 1: No question. ANDREWA. Cabe, thanks so much for joining.
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  Speaker 5: Thanks