EXCLUSIVE: USSS Agent Investigated for Role in Fraternity Hazing Incident

Pinder allegedly oversaw or directed the paddling of pledges, which was allegedly so severe in one incident that a pledge’s kidneys were harmed and he was rushed to the hospital. The victim is now expected to make a full recovery, the sources said.

Pinder also has served as a reservist in the Coast Guard for several years, according to his LinkedIn account.

In a separate incident, a Secret Service agent serving on Vice President JD Vance’s detail is under internal investigation for either purchasing or trying to sell drugs to an undercover police officer, according to multiple sources. The Secret Service has placed both agents on administrative leave in recent weeks, the sources said. RealClearPolitics is withholding the agent’s name until more details emerge about the alleged drug-related arrest.

The incidents, both involving young agents, underscore ongoing concerns in Congress and the federal law enforcement community that the Secret Service has failed to implement reforms to address long-running personnel issues, including DEI and nepotism.

Many current and retired agents have argued that the agency’s ongoing DEI issues and lowering of hiring standards, as well as manpower shortages in recent years may have weakened the agency’s ability to prevent or respond properly to multiple assassination attempts against President Trump.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn in early May sent Secret Service Director Sean Curran a letter demanding a full, immediate audit of the Secret Service following a string of high-profile security breaches, including the incident in which would-be assassin Cole Tomas Allen shot past a security checkpoint at the April 25 White House Correspondent’s dinner. Allen tripped before he was apprehended by the Secret Service 45 yards from the stairs leading to the ballroom where the dinner was being held.  

Citing RealClearPolitics’ reporting, the Tennessee Republican demanded an immediate audit of every employee on the agency’s payroll, demanding that the agency “root out the rot.”

The alumni and other senior fraternity members performing the paddling in the hazing incident are referred to as NUPEs, which stands for “Negro Under Pressure Excelling,” an acronym that Kappa Alpha Psi, a prominent historically black fraternity, has popularized, which refers to how diamonds are formed under pressure, according to sources familiar with the fraternity scene. Kappa Alpha Psi has championed the acronym as praise for black scholars, artists, and leaders who have responded to highly pressurized or historically restrictive environments by achieving “excellence” or success in their various fields.

Kappa Alpha Psi officially prohibits all forms of hazing and pledges. Nonetheless, several chapters have faced disciplinary action and suspensions from universities nationwide following allegations of physical and psychological abuse over the last 30 years.

In 2001 a Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University band member was beaten so severely his kidneys shut down, resulting in a $1.8 million lawsuit.

In 2013, a Stevenson University student who became a member of Kappa Alpha Psi at Coppin State University-Powell claimed he was caned, paddled, and beaten so badly he needed days of hospital care, filing a $4 million lawsuit.

A University of Mississippi chapter was suspended through 2025 after a student alleged repeated hazing incidents from spring 2019 through spring 2020.

Neither the Secret Service nor Kappa Alpha Psi’s national headquarters responded to a request for comment. 

Maydel Santana, a spokeswoman for Florida International University, said the Sweetwater Police is the lead agency in this case and referred RCP’s inquiry to the police department.

“Please note, however, that Sweetwater PD has confirmed that the allegations do not involve an FIU organization or FIU student,” Santana said in an emailed statement. She did not respond to a request to clarify whether FIU recognizes a local Kappa Alpha Psi chapter.

An officer in the Sweetwater, Florida, police department acknowledged that it was investigating an incident involving a Secret Service agent, and said Chief of Police Sergio Diez would return RCP’s call, but Diez never did. The department did not respond to multiple follow-up requests.

In her letter to Curran, Sen. Blackburn said, “It is blatantly clear that the Secret Service needs to be cleaned up.”

“Unless you root out the rot, our nation will suffer the consequences,” she warned.

Blackburn penned the letter just days after a Secret Service Uniformed Division officer was arrested in Miami having been found naked and masturbating in a hallway in yet another embarrassing spectacle.

Just hours after the arrest of the naked officer, the Secret Service made headlines again – this time for engaging in a gunfight with an armed man, resulting in injuries to a juvenile bystander who was hit with a stray bullet near the Washington Monument.

Law enforcement experts, including Fox News contributor Paul Mauro, who served 24 years with the New York City Police Department, have questioned why the Secret Service didn’t provide more details sooner about Monday’s exchange of fire and the suspect’s injuries. Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged 45-year-old Michael Marx of Midland, Texas, with assaulting federal officers with a dangerous weapon, among other crimes.

“A press conference over this recent mysterious shooting in D.C. wouldn’t be a bad idea either,” Mauro remarked in an X.com post. “USSS involved in more shooting incidents than NYPD these days. And that’s … new.”

In May, Curran drew fire for telling Fox News last week that the security for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was “set up perfectly.”

Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who led multiple investigations into the Secret Service when he was Oversight Committee chairman, strongly questioned that characterization. “Perfect? Are you kidding?” he told RCP. “What if there were 12 guys with guns that decided to rush that point? And Curran’s talking about how great the training was. Are you kidding me?” he added.

Former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, who previously served as a Secret Service agent, also expressed concern about the possibility of multiple assailants bombarding Secret Service checkpoints and argued that agents with elite training should help fortify that layer of security.

“What worries me is not the first guy going through who charges the checkpoint. It’s the second, third, and possibly 10^th guy after that,” he said in an interview this week with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. “You get a counter-assault team there, you got a real force to hit back.”

The dinner incident was not the only recent security lapse Blackburn highlighted. Just 19 days before the correspondents’ dinner, sometime between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. on April 6, a gunman fired shots near the White House grounds. In an RCP report cited by the senator, multiple sources said Secret Service investigators were unable to identify any information about the shooter – who, as of the letter’s writing, remains unidentified. Trump was also pressing the agency for more information, the sources said.

Blackburn cited other personnel incidents RCP reported, including a junior Secret Service agent faulted for the security planning and execution failures at the Butler rally, marrying a foreign national without promptly notifying her superiors; another in which the FBI raided an agent’s home in an investigation of an alleged massive tax fraud scheme; and an agent charged for murdering his brother on New Year’s Eve.

“These are just a few of the many examples of personnel concerns that demonstrate a clear pattern of incompetence at the Secret Service that must be promptly addressed,” Blackburn wrote in her letter to Curran.

The spate of such incidents has fueled bipartisan alarm on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have questioned whether the agency is structurally equipped to protect its principals at a moment when threats against the president are, by Blackburn’s account, escalating.