The Director of the Secret Service will step down from her post, according to an email she sent to staff, following the attack on former President Donald Trump that sparked widespread outcry over how the agency tasked with protecting current and former presidents could be failing in its core mission.
Kimberly Cheatle, head of the Secret Service Since August 2022, he has faced mounting calls to resign and multiple investigations into how the attacker was able to get so close to the Republican presidential candidate at an outdoor campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
“I take full responsibility for the security breach,” she said in the email to staff on Tuesday. “In light of recent events, it is with great regret that I have made the difficult decision to step down as director.”
The Secret Service has acknowledged that it had turned down some requests from Trump’s campaign to increase security at his events years before last week’s incident.
In the aftermath of the July 13 attack at a rally, the police agency denied having refused such requests. But it backtracked on Saturday night, a week after the attack on Trump, acknowledging that it had refused some requests.
At the rally, Trump was wounded in the right ear. One protester was killed and two others were injured. Secret Service agents killed the attacker, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a young white man who worked at a Republican nursing home.
Crooks reportedly rigged the vehicle he drove to Trump’s campaign event that day with explosives.