From Staff Reports

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service is investigating allegations that a female agent abandoned her post without permission/warning at a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump in Asheville, N.C., on Aug. 14 to breastfeed her child, according to the New York Post.

“All employees of the U.S. Secret Service are held to the highest standards,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told The Post on Aug. 17. “While there was no impact to the North Carolina event, the specifics of this incident are being examined. Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further.” 

The Post added, “The breastfeeding allegation was first made by RealClearPolitics correspondent Susan Crabtree in a lengthy X posting Thursday (Aug. 15) — shortly after the Trump campaign event in Asheville...”

To that end, the Hindustan Times quoted Crabtree as writing: “Shortly before Trump’s motorcade arrival — I’m told five minutes beforehand — the site agent was getting ready for the arrival. (The site agent is the person in charge of the entire event’s security.)”

At that point, the Post quoted Crabtree as writing the following:

“The site agent went to do one final sweep of the walking route and found the agent breast-feeding her child in a room that is supposed to be set aside for important Secret Service official work, i.e. a potential emergency related to the president.

Crabtree noted, according to the Post, “A working agent on duty cannot bring a child to a protective assignment. The woman was out of the Atlanta Field Office” and was accompanied by two other family members. Crabtree cited as the source of her information as three people “in the Secret Service community.”

The Post added, “The charge comes as the agency is already under fire for security lapses which led to a near-fatal assassination attempt against Trump last month (July)” in Butler, Penn.

“Secret Service Director Kimberley Cheatle, who made elevating more women into the agency a priority, was forced to resign amid the fallout... The charge comes as the agency is already under fire for security lapses which led to a near-fatal assassination attempt against Trump last month,” the Post stated.

Meanwhile, Newsweek reported on Aug. 15 that the alleged breastfeeding incident “also comes a day after the Secret Service responded to concerns about other federal agents being given Secret Service patches at 2024 campaign events. 

“A photo of a Department of Homeland Security officer raised eyebrows after he was seen wearing a Secret Service patch at a rally for Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, despite not working directly for the Secret Service. The officer is a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations.

“The Secret Service told Newsweek on Wednesday (Aug. 15) that it did not pose any security concerns and that the agency had since taken corrective action and issued agency-wide guidance informing its workforce not to lend agency insignias to other law enforcement officials.”