By Spencer S. Hsu and Clarence Williams @ WashingtonPost.com, Updated yesterday at 9:29 p.m. EDT

The FBI on Wednesday arrested two men charged with impersonating federal law enforcement in an investigation that has placed four U.S. Secret Service members on leave.

Federal authorities accused Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36, of obtaining handguns, rifles and other material to pose as Department of Homeland Security employees. They said the men used the guise to get closer to members of federal law enforcement and the defense community — including a U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to the first lady’s protective detail.

Taherzadeh provided members of the Secret Service and an employee of DHS with items such as “rent-free apartments (with a total yearly rent of over $40,000 per apartment), iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, a flat screen television, a case for storing an assault rifle, a generator, and law enforcement paraphernalia,” according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in D.C. [....] 

The complaint said that four members of the Secret Service were placed on administrative leave as of April 4. The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night.

Both men are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court on Thursday and are currently detained, prosecutors said

Investigators said the pair posed as DHS officers or employees beginning in February 2020.

The charges against Ali and Taherzadeh were made public as FBI personnel were seen in the Navy Yard area Wednesday night and were photographed on social media going into an apartment building [....]