The former Secret Service director who resigned in the wake of an assassination attempt on Donald Trump has pushed back on a Senate report accusing her of lying to Congress.
Kimberly Cheatle issued a rare statement on Sunday countering a report by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that detailed what it described as “stunning failures” in protecting Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year. The incident wounded then-candidate Trump’s ear and killed fire chief Corey Comperatore, who died attempting to shield his daughter from the shooter.
The Senate committee took issue with Cheatle’s testimony to a Congressional hearing held nine days after the Butler assassination attempt. It concluded that Cheatle “falsely testified to Congress that no USSS (U.S. Secret Service) asset requests were denied for the Butler rally,” arguing that it was aware of “at least two instances of assets being denied by USSS headquarters.”
The committee said Secret Service documents “revealed a pattern of certain categories of requests being either blatantly denied, unfulfilled, or required to be supplemented by local law enforcement or other federal agencies.”
“These documents further contradict statements made by former Director of USSS, Kimberly Cheatle’s testimony to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,” it said.
Cheatle acknowledged in her statement that mistakes were made, but maintained that her Congressional testimony was based on information provided and confirmed to her by personnel at the Secret Service Headquarters and Trump’s security detail.
“The Director of the Secret Service is not typically directly engaged in the approval or denial of requests for support; the agency has procedures in place to identify such requirements and requests for additional assets,” she explained. “For the Butler rally, I actually did direct additional assets to be provided, particularly in the form of agency counter-snipers.”
“Any assertion or implication that I provided misleading testimony is patently false and does a disservice to those men and women on the front lines who have been unfairly disciplined for a team, rather than individual, failure,” she added.
Cheatle, who resigned from her post less than two weeks after the incident, said the assassination attempt was “literally a perfect storm of events.”
Trump was onstage speaking to his supporters on July 13, 2024, when 20-year-old Thomas Crooks shot at him, causing a bullet to graze his ear. Trump was quickly rushed off the stage by security personnel.
Crooks killed Comperatore and injured two others before he was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
The Senate report found “a disturbing pattern of communication failures and negligence that culminated in a preventable tragedy.”
“What happened was inexcusable, and the consequences imposed for the failures so far do not reflect the severity of the situation,” it read.
