U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign event in Pennsylvania, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, July 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
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Live Special Coverage: Oversight of the Secret Service and the Trump Assassination Attempt
Live Special Coverage: Trump Assassination Attempt Hearing (NTD)
The director of the Secret Service has faced intense scrutiny as well as calls to step down since the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. NTD will have live coverage of Kimberly Cheatle’s testimony before Congress today.
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) subpoenaed Ms. Cheatle last week, and promised the hearing would be extensive and detailed. Ms. Cheatle will be asked how her agency failed to stop the attempt on former President Trump’s life on July 13. It will be her first time before Congress since the assassination attempt. The Secret Service has pledged complete cooperation with Congress.
Secret Service Investigation Estimated to Take 60 Days
The final report of an internal Secret Service investigation into the assassination attempt and how the service handled the matter is slated to take 60 days, Ms. Cheatle told members.
Ms. Cheatle said that the agency is still conducting interviews as she declined to tell Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) her personal analysis of what went wrong in Pennsylvania where former President Trump was shot.
Lawmakers criticized the two-month timeframe of the investigation.
Cheatle: No Employees Disciplined Over Trump Shooting
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said no agency employees have been disciplined over the security failures at former President Donald Trump’s July 13 rally.
The reason, she said, is that the FBI investigation is still underway.
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) was dissatisfied with that response.
Ms. Cheatle several times during the hearing said she will not be stepping down.
"I think I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time," she said at one point.
Ms. Cheatle added later, when questioned if she believes the majority of Americans have confidence in her leadership, "I believe that the country deserves answers, and I am committed to finding those answers, and providing those answers."
A photograph of Former President Donald Trump by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci is seen as United Sates Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee during a hearing at Capitol on July 22, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Agency Investigating Why Threat of Shooter Not Communicated
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle told a House Oversight panel Monday that her agency is still investigating questions why a Trump rally was allowed to continue even as witnesses of the crowd saw Thomas Matthew Crooks on the roof of a building with a direct line of sight to the former president.
“We are still combing through communications and when communications were passed,” Ms. Cheatle said, adding that the Secret Service would have stopped the rally if they knew there was an actual threat to former President Donald Trump in the July 13 shooting.
She added, “I don’t know all of the communications” on that day, adding that officials are "going back and looking at communications to know when the information about a suspicious person was passed to Secret Service personnel."
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said the rally was not paused because agents on the ground did not identify a threat before shots were fired at former President Trump.
"The Secret Service would have paused the rally had they known ... there was an actual threat," Ms. Cheatle told Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.).
Mr. Krishnamoorthi highlighted how state police informed Secret Service agents of concern about the shooter about 20 minutes before the man fired the shots, that the Secret Service notified its snipers about the gunman shortly after, and two minutes before the shots were fired, people at the rally were shouting about the man being on the roof of a nearby building.
Several Democrats on the Oversight Committee focused their questioning of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on highlighting their preference for stricter gun laws.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the committee’s top Democrat, noted that former President Donald Trump’s shooter was identified by the serial number of his AR-15 thanks to a controversial tracing system that gun rights activists oppose.
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), meanwhile, lamented that Republican lawmakers have sought to block and repeal strict Washington gun laws, including bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Referencing the 2025 appropriations bill for the federal government, Ms. Norton noted that the bill would allow anyone with a state-issued permit to carry a concealed firearm to do so in Washington as well.
Director: Secret Service Is 1,500 Personnel Short of What It Needs
The Secret Service has about 8,000 employees, which is short of what the agency needs, Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle said.
"We are still striving towards a number of 9,500 employees, approximately, in order to meet future and emerging needs," she told Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.).
The House of Representatives in a 2015 investigative report said it found the Secret Service was experiencing a staffing crisis that started in 2011 with the number of employees dropping across all categories of employment.
Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said that FBI Director Christopher Wray was “incensed” when he learned that the Secret Service’s threat assessment for former President Donald Trump’s July 13 rally did not take recent Iranian threats on his life into account.
“He was incensed. He was shocked that the threat assessment of Iran did not seem to be, as we discussed, baked in to your security footprint and your threat assessment,” Mr. Turner said, citing committee members’ briefing on the investigation from the FBI last week.
Mr. Turner also referenced other comments made by Mr. Wray at recent hearings pointing to the crisis at the southern border as a national security threat that could lead to potential terrorist attacks.
Cheatle Doesn’t Say How Many Times Agency Declined Trump Requests
Under questioning from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said that "there were no requests that were denied" at the Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
"A denial of a request does not equal a vulnerability ... threats can be mitigated" with technology and other resources, Ms. Cheatle said.
Mr. Jordan had made reference to a statement issued by Secret Service spokesman Anthony Gugliemi over the weekend that suggested the agency had denied the Trump campaign's requests for more Secret Service security, going back on an earlier statement that said such requests were never denied.
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is sworn in before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign event in Pennsylvania, at the Capitol on July 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Cheatle Confirms Shooter Was Identified by Rifle Serial Number
Citing news reports, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) asked Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle about the information that led to law enforcement identifying the shooter.
“It’s been reported that the shooter was not carrying a driver’s license or any form of identification,” Mr. Raskin noted. “They had no idea who he was, but then he was quickly identified, I think within 30 minutes, by using the serial number on the AR-15 under a tracing system that is now controversial.”
Asked to confirm if those reports were true, Ms. Cheatle replied: “That is my understanding, sir, yes.”
Cheatle Doesn’t Answer If Secret Service Had Anyone on Roof
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) kicked off his line of questioning by asking U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle if any Secret Service agents were stationed on the roof the shooter was positioned on.
Referencing the ongoing investigation, Ms. Cheatle did not answer that question. She also declined to say how many agents were assigned to former President Donald Trump for the event but did note that she thought it was “a sufficient number.”
She would not say whether the Secret Service deployed drones to secure the event.
Secret Service Director Admits ‘Significant Operational Failure’ in Trump Assassination Attempt
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is seen in a file photo. (Kamil Krzaczynski/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
The director of the U.S. Secret Service told a House panel on Monday that her agency failed during the assassination attempt targeting former President Donald Trump.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed. As the Director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse,” Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle told the House Oversight Committee in prepared remarks after she was subpoenaed, adding that the shooting was the “most significant operational failure in decades.”
During the July 13 incident at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a gunman fired at the former president, striking him in the right ear as well as killing one person and wounding two others.
Cheatle on Secret Service’s ‘Most Significant Operational Failure’ in Decades
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle opened her remarks by describing the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump as “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.”
Offering the former president and other victims from that day her thoughts and condolences, Ms. Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service had failed in its mission to protect the nation’s leaders at the former president’s July 13 rally in Pennsylvania.
“As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency,” she said. “We are fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. We must learn what happened, and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13 does not happen again.”
Oversight Hearing Kicks Off With Speaker Johnson Present
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was in attendance as the first Oversight Committee hearing to investigate the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life began.
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle will testify to the failings that allowed a would-be assassin to fire off several shots at a Pennsylvania rally, killing one attendee and injuring several others, including the former president.
Ahead of the hearing, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) revealed via social media that Ms. Cheatle did not provide the committee with her written testimony, as is customary. The congresswoman also noted that the director failed to provide audio recordings from the July 13 shooting and the names of those on the former president’s Secret Service detail, despite the committee’s requests for those materials.
Secret Service Director: ‘Eager to Cooperate’ With Independent Review
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle speaks during a press conference at the Secret Service's Chicago Field Office in Chicago, on June 4 2024. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said Sunday that she is “eager to cooperate with the independent security review” of the agency’s failure in preventing the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on July 13.
In a statement, Ms. Cheatle expressed her full support for an independent review conducted by a “Blue Ribbon Panel” that will add to investigations by Congress, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General over the Secret Service’s actions after former President Trump came within an inch of being assassinated by a 20-year-old male shooter in Pennsylvania.
“I look forward to the panel examining what happened and providing recommendations to help ensure it will never happen again,” the director said.
Live Special Coverage: Oversight of the Secret Service and the Trump Assassination Attempt
Live Special Coverage: Trump Assassination Attempt Hearing (NTD)
The director of the Secret Service has faced intense scrutiny as well as calls to step down since the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. NTD will have live coverage of Kimberly Cheatle’s testimony before Congress today.
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) subpoenaed Ms. Cheatle last week, and promised the hearing would be extensive and detailed. Ms. Cheatle will be asked how her agency failed to stop the attempt on former President Trump’s life on July 13. It will be her first time before Congress since the assassination attempt. The Secret Service has pledged complete cooperation with Congress.
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