US Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle resigns from agency

US Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle has resigned following security lapses surrounding an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

“As your director, I take full responsibility for the security breach,” Cheatle said in a resignation letter to agency staff.

She had faced calls for her resignation from both Democrats and Republicans after a contentious congressional hearing on Monday into the shooting.

Lawmakers grew increasingly frustrated when she refused to answer questions about the shooting at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier this month.

In Tuesday’s resignation letter, Cheatle said he had always “put the needs of the agency first” and that he made his decision “with great regret.”

“The scrutiny over the past week has been intense and will continue to be so as our operational tempo increases,” he said.

“I do not want my calls for resignation to distract from the great work that each and every one of you is doing in pursuit of our vital mission.”

President Joe Biden said in a statement that he was grateful for her decades of public service.

“The independent investigation into what happened on 13 July is continuing and I look forward to assessing its findings. We all know that what happened that day cannot happen again,” he said.

Mr Biden said he would soon name a new director.

For now, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has named Ronald Rowe as acting director of the agency.

Mr. Rowe, a 24-year veteran of the Secret Service, has served as deputy director since April 2023.

The president nominated Cheatle to lead the Secret Service, which oversees the protection of current and former presidents and other officials, in 2022. He previously served 27 years with the agency in various roles.

During her time as an agent, Ms. Cheatle participated in the evacuation of then-Vice President Dick Cheney from the White House during the attacks of September 11, 2001.

She later went on to become a supervisor for Biden’s protective team when he was vice president, before becoming deputy assistant director for protective operations.

But his leadership came into question after the shooting at Trump’s rally on July 13, where a bullet grazed the former president’s ear.

The attack left one audience member dead and two others seriously injured.

Lawmakers grilled Ms. Cheatle about security preparations ahead of the campaign rally during the six-hour House Oversight Committee hearing.

Ms Cheatle has taken responsibility for the security failures but has rejected calls to resign.

She called the shooting “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.”

Witnesses reported seeing a suspicious man – suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks – with a rifle on the roof of a building during the demonstration, minutes before shots were fired.

Crooks was killed by a sniper shortly after.

Security and police officers from several different agencies were present at the demonstration.

During his testimony, Ms. Cheatle did not offer lawmakers any new information about how Crooks was able to access the roof where he was sitting and why Mr. Trump was allowed on stage.

After the hearing, the committee’s top Republicans and Democrats (James Comer and Jamie Raskin) sent a letter to Cheatle expressing their belief that she should resign.

Mr. Comer said that during the hearing Ms. Cheatle “failed to inspire any confidence” that she could fulfill the Secret Service’s protective mission.

“The Oversight Committee hearing resulted in Director Cheatle’s resignation and there will be more responsibilities to come,” he said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.

In a post on his social media platform on Tuesday, Trump said: “The Biden/Harris administration failed to adequately protect me and I was forced to take a bullet for democracy.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, called her resignation “much needed” and said he was “glad she did the right thing.”

“Now we have to pick up the pieces, we have to rebuild the faith and trust of the American people in the Secret Service,” he told reporters.

Teresa Wilson, a former marine who attended the demonstration, told the BBC she was “glad (Ms Cheatle) succumbed to the pressure”.

“I hope they move forward with the independent investigation now that she has resigned. We want answers,” he said.

At a separate hearing at the Capitol on Tuesday, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher Paris detailed a series of security lapses before the shooting,

According to Mr. Paris, two officers who were positioned at a vantage point on the roof from which Thomas Matthew Crooks was shooting left their posts to help investigate reports of a suspicious person.

A police officer later confronted Crooks on the roof just seconds before he opened fire on Trump.

While acknowledging “critical failures” in Butler’s statement, he said the Secret Service “is ultimately responsible and is the final arbiter of any security matters affecting its protectees and the public.”