The director of the U.S. Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, has resigned, according to an email she sent to her staff following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally on July 13.
Cheatle, who had led the Secret Service since August 2022, faced calls for her resignation and multiple investigations into how the armed assailant managed to get so close to the Republican presidential candidate during the rally in Pennsylvania.
“I take full responsibility for the security failure,” she said in the email sent on Tuesday, July 23.
“Following recent events, I am informing you that I have made the difficult decision to step down as director,” she added.
A day earlier, Cheatle testified before the U.S. Congress, stating that the attempt on Trump’s life was the agency’s “biggest operational failure” in decades.
The 20-year-old assailant, Thomas Matthew Crooks, managed to get within 135 meters of the stage where Trump was speaking before opening fire. Trump was lightly injured in the ear, while one person in the audience was killed.
Trump held this rally despite reports of a threat against his life from Iran.
The Secret Service director told Congress that the agency had not received a request to increase security for the July 13 rally.
“We did not deny any assets for the events of July 13,” she testified.
“We believe there were a sufficient number of agents” at Trump’s rally on July 13, she said.
U.S. lawmakers have expressed outrage over how the gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential candidate, who was supposed to be under tight security.
