An erratic and apparently violent outburst from a female Secret Service agent earlier this week has sparked questions regarding agency hiring practices and recent initiatives to increase the number of female agents.
Michelle Herczeg seemed to have a bad day on Monday. The Secret Service agent arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland around 9 a.m. as part of a security detail for Vice President Kamala Harris, who was scheduled to depart the base later that morning.
Before Harris ever arrived, Herczeg began exhibiting strange behavior. According to reports, Herczeg gained access to another agent’s phone and proceeded to delete apps on it. The man eventually recovered his phone and otherwise went about his business.
Herczeg then allegedly began engaging in other bizarre behavior, such as mumbling to herself and hiding behind curtains. She even reportedly started throwing various items, including feminine napkins, and warning her colleagues that they were “going to burn in hell and needed to listen to God,” a source told Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics.
When the special agent in charge attempted to intervene, Herczeg allegedly began screaming and insisting that other female agents on Harris’ security detail would support her and allow her to continue working.
The situation then seemed to reach a tipping point. Agents suggested that Herczeg was suffering from some kind of mental-health episode, and the SAIC relieved Herczeg of her assignment.
Herczeg did not take the news well.
According to Crabtree’s reporting, Herczeg chest-bumped the SAIC and tackled him to the ground, where she began punching him repeatedly. Other agents then attempted to restrain Herczeg but harbored concerns because her service weapon was still in its holster.
Eventually, the agents managed to handcuff Herczeg, seize her firearm, and escort her from the premises, Crabtree reported.
“She snapped entirely,” a source told RCP.
Agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed only that a “U.S. Secret Service special agent supporting the Vice President’s departure from Joint Base Andrews” had exhibited “distressing” behavior and that the individual had been “removed from their assignment.” He gave few other details since the agency is treating the incident as a “medical matter.”
“The U.S. Secret Service takes the safety and health of our employees very seriously,” he said.
Guglielmi’s statement did not name the agent or use pronouns that would give clues about the person’s gender.
Guglielmi may not want to discuss the agent’s gender, but plenty of other people do. Crabtree noted in a tweet thread about the incident that “there are DEI concerns among the USSS community about the hiring of this agent.”
Not only has Herczeg supposedly shown “other strange behavior before this incident,” but she may have been hired as part of a recent push to increase the number of female agents. The Secret Service is one of many federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies that have signed onto the 30×30 Pledge, which seeks to have women comprising 30% of their force by 2030.
Even with an emphasis on hiring more female agents, Ronald Kessler, a reporter who has covered the Secret Service for some time, believes that Herczeg “never should have been hired.”
Indeed, Herczeg has a troubling record. In 2016, when she was a senior corporal with the Dallas Police Department, she filed a $1 million discrimination lawsuit, claiming among other allegations that another officer had assaulted her and other colleagues had “targeted” and “treated [her] less favorably” because she’s a woman.
“[DPD] tolerates unprofessional behavior such as fraternization and unprofessional male and female working relationships based on an atmosphere which finds the male officer in charge, regardless of rank or ability,” the lawsuit claimed.
The lawsuit never went anywhere. A trial court dismissed it in 2021, and a Texas appeals court later upheld the lower court’s decision. The appeals court then denied a rehearing of the suit the following year.
Kessler said that lawsuit should have been enough to “exclude” Herczeg from consideration at the Secret Service. Because the competition to be accepted into the agency is so fierce, “you really have to have a pristine record,” he claimed.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi denied that the agency had “lowered” its hiring standards so that more women could qualify and thus fulfill the agency’s 30X30 Pledge. He called any accusations to the contrary “categorically false.”
Herczeg did not respond to the New York Post’s request for comment.
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