The Secret Service has placed the senior special agent who wrote a Facebook post decrying "taking a bullet" for Trump on administrative leave while the agency investigates her social media activities.

An agency spokeswoman on Friday afternoon informed the Washington Examiner of the management action, which takes the agent off the job with pay while the investigation proceeds.

The move is a sign that the agency is taking the investigation against Kerry O'Grady, the agent who wrote the Facebook post, seriously. Critics, however, question why it took the agency three months and a report in the Washington Examiner earlier this week for it to initiate the probe.

On Wednesday night, the Secret Service announced that it was formally investigating the special agent who suggested on Facebook that she would rather endure "jail time" than take "a bullet" for Trump.

The Secret Service said its Office of Professional Responsibility, or RES, its main internal ethics entity, is investigating the matter. Joseph Clancy, the director of the Secret Service, sent an email to all employees Wednesday night notifying them of the formal probe, and asking them for "patience while the RES conducts their investigation."