Secret Service Director Resigns Amid Anger Over Trump Shooting

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned amid bipartisan outrage over her agency’s failure to stop a 20-year-old gunman from opening fire on former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally, according to people familiar with her decision.

Cheatle’s departure came after a blistering congressional hearing in which she refused to answer most questions about the July 13 assassination attempt in western Pennsylvania, which Cheatle acknowledged marked the Secret Service’s most stunning failure since President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.

Cheatle in her testimony acknowledged that Crooks had been identified as suspicious more than an hour before the shooting. Pressed by lawmakers, she acknowledged that Secret Service agents had received several notifications of a person acting suspiciously.

The director declined to elaborate on those communications. She also declined to say how Crooks got on the roof, or whether authorities sought to approach him after he was initially identified as suspicious. In one revealing exchange, Cheatle suggested that the security team with Trump before he went on stage didn’t know that the former president was facing an active threat.

Her resignation marks an abrupt and unhappy end to a Secret Service career three decades in the making.

Kimberly Cheatle initially hoped to retain position as head of agency, but lawmakers demanded she step down.

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