U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday, just a day after facing bipartisan grilling during testimony before the House Oversight Committee, and over a week after a the attempted assassination of Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
In a letter she sent the Secret Service Tuesday morning, Cheatle wrote in part, "To the Men and Women of the U.S. Secret Service, The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders and financial infrastructure. On July 13th, we fell short on that mission."
The outgoing Director said that the "scrutiny" over the last week "has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases."
"As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse," she wrote.
House Republicans, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, had been calling on Cheatle to resign, calling her and the agency under her watch "the face of incompetence."
Trump’s security detail reportedly asked for additional resources from the Secret Service, repeatedly, but those requests were not met by the Biden administration. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has opened an investigation into the Secret Service's handling of security for the Trump rally on July 13.
"It is my firm belief, Director Cheatle, that you should resign," Comer said during the hearing. "The safety of Secret Service protectees is not based on their political affiliation. And the bottom line is that under Director Cheatle’s leadership, we question whether anyone is safe."
However President Biden did not fire Cheatle, and said he is "grateful to Director Kim Cheatle for her decades of public service," and that he will appoint a new director soon.
Cheatle said, though, that the "incident does not define us."
"We remain an organization based on integrity and staffed by individuals of exceptional dedication and talent," she wrote, adding that the agency "will move forward with our investigatory and protective mission in a steadfast manner."
"We do not retreat from challenge," she wrote. "However, I do not want my calls for resignation to be a distraction from the great work each and every one of you do towards our vital mission."
Cheatle said that when she got the call asking whether she would return to the Secret Service after her brief retirement from the agency, she said she "did not hesitate."
However "In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that, I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director," Cheatle wrote.
Cheatle admitted under oath during Monday's hearing, that the Secret Service "on July 13th, we failed."
"As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency," she said. "We must learn what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13th does not happen again."
Cheatle added: "Our agents, officers and support personnel understand that every day we are expected to sacrifice our lives to execute a no fail mission."
The Director's initial explanation of why there was such a significant security lapse that led to the near assassination of Trump included details about the roof Crooks was perched upon.
"That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point," Cheatle said last week. "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. And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside."
During Monday's hearing, Cheatle said the Secret Service is "still looking into the advanced process and the decision made" as to why an agent wasn't positioned on top of the roof from where Crooks fired at Trump.
"The building was outside of the perimeter on the day of the visit," the Director said. "But again, that is one of the things that during the investigation, we want to take a look at and determine whether or not other decisions should have been made."
She added that "I'm not going to get into the specifics of the numbers of personnel that we had there, but we feel that there was a sufficient number of agents assigned" to the event.
