Secret Service director resigns following testimony

WASHINGTON, D.C. — United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned following her testimony in front of the House Oversight Committee on July 22.

Cheatle was lambasted on both sides of the aisle regarding the perceived failures of the secret service for the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump during a campaign rally on July 13, 2024. In a prepared statement during her testimony Cheatle accepted responsibility for the incident and extended her condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore who was killed during the shooting, describing the attempted assassination as the most significant operational failure of the secret service in decades.

“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders,” Cheatle read to committee members. “On July 13th, we failed. As the Director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse. As an agency, we are fully cooperating with the FBI’s investigation, the oversight you have initiated here, and conducting our own internal mission assurance review at my direction. Likewise, we will cooperate with the pending external review and the DHS Office of the Inspector General.”

Cheatle’s ensuing testimony however proved too insufficient or evasive to members with several shouting obscenities as Cheatle failed to provide acceptable answers to their questions. The result was House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sending a letter calling for Cheatle’s resignation, a request that would be obliged the following day.

“The Oversight Committee’s hearing resulted in Director Cheatle’s resignation and there will be more accountability to come,” Comer wrote in a statement. “The Secret Service has a no-fail mission yet it failed historically on Director Cheatle’s watch. At yesterday’s Oversight Committee hearing, Director Cheatle instilled no confidence that she has the ability to ensure the Secret Service can meet its protective mission. Egregious security failures leading up to and at the Butler, Pennsylvania campaign rally resulted in the assassination attempt of President Trump, the murder of an innocent victim, and harm to others in the crowd. While Director Cheatle’s resignation is a step toward accountability, we need a full review of how these security failures happened so that we can prevent them going forward. We will continue our oversight of the Secret Service in support of the House Task Force to deliver transparency, accountability, and solutions to ensure this never happens again.”

Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe will temporarily serve as a replacement for Cheatle until a new agency director is appointed.