U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee during a hearing in the House Office Building in Rayburn, Washington, DC, July 22, 2024.
West Village Kent | Getty Images
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Chettle She resigned on Tuesday amid widespread outrage over her agency’s failure to prevent the incident attempted assassination former president’s Donald Trump in a Pennsylvania campaign rally earlier this month.
Citing sources, NBC News reported that Chatel’s resignation came a day after she was blasted by House committee members during a hearing on Secret Service operations ahead of Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler Township.
At that hearing, Chettle refused to resign, saying she was the most qualified person for the Secret Service tasked with protecting the president, vice president, their families and major presidential candidates.
But on Tuesday, Chettle wrote in a letter to Secret Service staff: “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to resign as director.”
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders and financial infrastructure. On July 13, we failed in that mission,” Cheatle wrote.
“Last week’s review was rigorous and will continue as our operational tempo increases. As your supervisor, I take full responsibility for the security breach.”
Chettle’s resignation was questioned on Monday by the chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, who said in a statement about her resignation that it would not prevent the committee from holding the Secret Service “to greater accountability.”
“The Secret Service’s mission is to never fail, but under Director Chatter’s leadership, it has historically failed,” said Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the committee.
“At yesterday’s Oversight Committee hearing, Director Cheatle had no confidence in her ability to ensure the Secret Service fulfills its protective mission,” Comer said. “While Director Cheatle’s resignation is a step toward accountability, we need to A comprehensive review of how these security failures occurred so that we can prevent them from happening in the future.”
Republican presidential candidate Trump was nearly killed in the shooting of 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks. One rallygoer died and two men were seriously injured in the shooting.
Crooks shot Trump from the roof of a building about 150 yards from Trump’s podium.
The Secret Service did not extend the rally’s security perimeter to the complex, including the buildings, leaving it up to local law enforcement officials to secure the area.
Secret Service agents also allowed Trump to take the stage and begin his speech after receiving a report from local police that a suspicious person was seen at the event. That man turned out to be Crooks, who was killed by a Secret Service sniper after firing multiple rounds at Trump.
Over the weekend, the Secret Service acknowledged that it erroneously stated that the agency did not deny the Trump campaign’s request for increased security after the shooting.
The shooting, the deadliest assassination attempt on a U.S. president in more than 40 years, occurred after the Secret Service learned that Trump was the target of an assassination plot by Iran. Crooks has not yet been linked to Iran.
The Secret Service has been the target of criticism over a series of scandals and missteps in recent years.
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