Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle Resigns

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned, one day after a contentious session with House lawmakers over security failures that facilitated the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July 13, both NBC and ABC News report.

BREAKING: @JuliaEAinsley reports
Two law enforcement sources tell NBC News Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned. And an official announcement is coming later this morning

— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) July 23, 2024

Her resignation comes after a bipartisan grilling on Monday, with numerous Republicans and at least one Democrat lawmaker demanding she resign, as her agency fell short of its “zero-fail mission.”

Kimberly Cheatle testifies that the roof 150 yards from the podium was “outside of the perimeter”: pic.twitter.com/cpJQ5Oufhz

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 22, 2024

Cheatle’s testimony came after a Sunday night announcement from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that the DOJ was forming an independent review panel charged with examining the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

Of course, Mayorkas and Biden are ‘grateful’ to Cheatle for her ‘decades of public service,’ which was great aside from that whole almost getting Trump killed thing.

In one notably heated exchange on Monday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told Cheatle that she was ‘full of shit today,’ after Cheatle continued to give vague, or no, answers to pointed questions.

.@NancyMace did NOT come to play today!

“You’re full of SHIT today!”

THIS IS HOW YOU HANDLE THESE PEOPLE! pic.twitter.com/b2K9SlGNAt

— Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) July 22, 2024

We also learned yesterday that the Secret Service has no recordings of radio communications from the 13th.

At the end of January 2021, USSS deleted texts of 2 dozen agents/officials related to Jan 6. They’ve never been recovered. L

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) July 22, 2024

She also admitted to using encrypted apps on her personal phone to conduct official business.

Bloody Hell

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle just said that she uses encrypted apps on her personal cell phone to speak to colleagues in the federal government and overseas

Rep. Eric Burlinson is stunned, and states this might be a federal crime

Cheatle hurriedly then… pic.twitter.com/qZHT3z2So5

— Connor Tomlinson (@Con_Tomlinson) July 22, 2024

During one exchange with California Democrat Ro Khana, Cheatle didn’t realize that a former Secret Service Director in charge during the Reagan assassination attempt stepped down.

Omg Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle just got embarrassed by California Dem Ro Khanna for not knowing the history of the agency she runs

“You know what Stuart Knight did after [Regan’s assassination attempt]?”

“He remained on duty.”

“He resigned. He resigned.” pic.twitter.com/8RZ9iTYPeK

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) July 22, 2024

The unusual Sunday night announcement from Mayorkas came about 12 hours before Cheatle’s 10 am Monday appearance before the House Oversight Committee, which Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has touted as “must-watch TV,” telling CNN, “She’s got a lot to answer for. And those concerns are bipartisan.” Underscoring that notion, Oversight Committee member and Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle has already demanded that Cheatle resign, via a statement released Saturday.

That panel has been given 45 days to perform its review. While new experts may be added shortly, it initially has four members: 

Obama Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano

Fran Townsend, a homeland security advisor to President George W. Bush

Mark Filip, who was deputy attorney general to George W. Bush

David Mitchell, former Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the State of Delaware

Damning information about the Secret Service’s handling of Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania continues to emerge. On Saturday, the agency was caught in a lie: Having repeatedly denied that Trump’s campaign was denied additional security resources it had requested, the agency was exposed as having done just that, via a report from the Washington Post. 

On Friday, the world learned that would-be assassin Thomas Crooks was able to fly a drone over the event site just a few hours before he opened fire. The Secret Service typically bans drone flights at secured sites; but it’s unclear if such a prohibition was at least nominally imposed at the rally.

Crooks was identified as a suspicious individual more than an hour before he opened fire from a rooftop only about 450 feet from Trump’s podium. At the time, he’d already been observed in possession of a range finder and carrying a duffel bag. Later, he was spotted on a rooftop 20 minutes before all hell broke loose. As it did, female agents assigned to the DEI-focused protective detail appeared to falter under fire — even struggling with holstering a weapon. 

In the aftermath of the shooting, Cheatle’s credibility took a sharp downturn when, asked why no Secret Service agent was posted atop ideal sniper roost used by the shooter, she told ABC:

“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof.” 

SS sloped roof division. 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/dHgFCVrlFz

— 🇺🇸𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓭🇺🇸𝓗𝓪𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓸𝓷🇺🇸 (@Texas_jeep__guy) July 20, 2024

Aaaaand, she’s gone.