A Secret Service agent leaked President Obama’s travel plans to a staffer on Mitt Romney’s campaign in the days leading up to the 2012 election, a former aide to Romney said.
Shawn McCoy, who served as Iowa communications director for the Romney campaign and is now publisher of the opinion website InsideSources, said two Romney campaign aides witnessed a Secret Service agent “providing details of President Obama’s schedule” to a Romney staffer he was romantically pursuing and trying to impress.
The information, according to McCoy’s report, included the locations and timing of Obama’s planned campaign events.
Sharing the information would not be as big a breach as some of the other recent problems revealed about the Secret Service, but it raises questions about the agent’s judgment.
The Secret Service circulates Obama’s travel plans to a wide number of White House staffers and the press on a routine basis with the understanding that they will not discuss it publicly or write about it before the event is formalized and publicly released.
The Secret Service has been widely criticized in recent days due to revelations about security breaches inside the White House and within Obama’s protective detail.
On Wednesday, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson was forced to step down.
