[Update at 10:24 p.m. ET: TSA Spokesperson Bruce Anderson told The Intercept Wednesday night that a third air marshal was involved. “Two of the employees involved have been placed on an indefinite suspension without pay, and the third employee has resigned from the agency,” he wrote in an e-mail.]

Two federal air marshals have been suspended without pay after allegedly using their government phones to film and share their sex acts with a prostitute while on assignment in Europe, The Intercept has learned.
Four employees based in different locations and divisions within the Transportation Security Administration told The Intercept that supervisors throughout the Federal Air Marshal Service and its parent agency, TSA, were casually briefing staff about the incident on Wednesday in anticipation of the news becoming public. None of these employees were authorized to speak to the media because the investigation by TSA’s Office of Inspections and Office of Professional Responsibility is ongoing, and a criminal investigation is considered likely.

Congressional sources confirmed that an incident involving two air marshals who filmed sex acts on a government phone is expected to be raised during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on personnel failures within the Federal Air Marshal Service scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

The two air marshals, based in Chicago, allegedly used their government-issued phones to record their own sexual encounters with a prostitute and then shared them using their personal email accounts, which they had connected to their work phones, according to TSA, government and law enforcement sources.

On Wednesday afternoon, government sources close to the investigation confirmed that both air marshals had been suspended without pay while the investigation continues.