A Secret Service agent in training — who previously worked as an analyst on the presidential protection team — was arrested this week on felony eavesdropping charges at the nation’s premier federal law enforcement training academy.
According to police in Glynn County, Georgia, the trainee, Joel Lara Canvasser, secretly recorded his suitemate using a spy camera hidden inside a phone charger. Investigators say Canvasser also carried out a weeks-long harassment campaign, sending messages intended to make the roommate believe he was being watched by a stranger with access to his suite — including the bathroom.
Canvasser was arrested Wednesday and charged with unlawful eavesdropping or surveillance, according to police records. He later posted bond of $8,458.
Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn described the allegations as serious.
“On April 8, disturbing facts involving a Secret Service trainee assigned to a special agent training class at FLETC in Glynco, Georgia, were brought to light,” Quinn said in a statement to ABC News. “An initial investigation by the Secret Service and FLETC led to the individual’s arrest by local authorities. The charges are deeply troubling and raise significant concerns about the individual’s character and fitness to serve. As this matter is now before the courts, we will allow the facts to be presented through the judicial process. We commend the swift actions of Secret Service trainers and FLETC personnel, whose prompt response ensured the matter was quickly brought forward and addressed through appropriate legal channels.”
The Secret Service confirmed the incident involved two trainees.
Before applying to become a special agent, Canvasser worked as a civilian employee in the Office of Strategic Information and Intelligence, which monitors and evaluates threats to the president and other protectees. He joined the agency in fall 2025.
Following the arrest, his access to Secret Service systems was revoked, and both his employment status and security clearance have been suspended.
Police say the situation began in March, when Canvasser offered his roommate a phone charger after the man’s original charger went missing. Canvasser allegedly suggested that “the cleaning ladies may have taken it.”
The roommate plugged the charger into a wall outlet beneath the television, giving the hidden camera a view with “coverage of the entire room.”
About a week later, the roommate began receiving strange messages.
“Roughly a week after [the roommate] plugs in the charger, he begins receiving odd text messages from various numbers. In the beginning he believed they were spam messages, however over time he began to realize whoever was texting him was simultaneously watching him,” the police report said. “At first, he assumed whoever was texting him had compromised his phone,” so he “placed a Band Aid over the camera.”
Believing his device had been hacked, the roommate sought help from Canvasser, who “has a cyber background and is supposedly good with technology which is why [the roommate] had gone to him for help.”
Canvasser told him he was likely dealing with malware and offered to reset the phone. But afterward, the roommate noticed the device had automatically connected to Canvasser’s personal WiFi network — something he found “odd,” according to the report.
The messages briefly stopped, then resumed about a week later.
“There was a specific instance where [the roommate] was using the bathroom and his phone was in his pocket. When he finished, he checked his phone and saw a message referencing him using the bathroom. It was at this point that [the roommate] realized the individual was not watching him through his phone camera but instead from another device,” according to the report.
After inspecting the charger more closely, the roommate noticed an unusual reflection and discovered the hidden lens.
“When he had pulled it out of the wall, the light hit the device in such a way that made the lens visible,” the report said.
The roommate also told police that the behavior extended beyond surveillance.
“During the past month, Mr. Joel has gone into [his] room on multiple occasions while he’s been sleeping at night. For this reason, [the roommate] has been locking his things up in attempts to prevent these events.”
The case marks another troubling episode for the Secret Service, which has faced increased scrutiny in recent years, including after what officials described as a “historic security failure” following an attempted assassination of Donald Trump during a campaign rally.
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