Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle will not have her top-level security clearance renewed, the agency confirmed.
This decision follows Cheatle’s resignation last year amid increased scrutiny over security failures that contributed to the assassination attempt on then-candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
During the July 13, 2024, rally, Trump survived after a bullet grazed his ear. Unfortunately, audience member Corey Comperatore was killed and two others injured. A Secret Service sniper neutralized the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who had climbed a nearby building.
The Secret Service and other intelligence agencies like the CIA and FBI routinely update security clearances for former directors. However, under current Director Sean Curran, the agency now says not all former directors will have their clearances renewed.
A Secret Service spokesperson told Fox News, “The U.S. Secret Service sponsors security clearances for all the former directors for their knowledge of operational and national security matters. The purpose for this was so the agency could maintain formal and protected communication including potentially sensitive and classified matters with former officials.”
“Since appointed, Director Curran has been building a dynamic team of knowledgeable advisors that will help implement his vision for the agency,” the spokesperson added. “Additionally, Director Curran has been modernizing the intelligence apparatus within the agency. During that process, he has determined that not all former directors will have their clearances renewed.”
Some Republican lawmakers expressed opposition to renewing Cheatle’s clearance. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., argued her leadership decisions contributed to the agency’s failures during the assassination attempt.
“Following the security debacle in Butler, the former director of USSS made the right decision to resign,” Johnson told RealClearPolitics. “I see no reason for her security clearance to be reinstated.”
Johnson chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has investigated the Secret Service’s lapses related to Butler.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which conducted a joint probe with Homeland Security into the incident, said Cheatle’s actions disqualify her from holding a clearance.
“Kim Cheatle disgraced the Secret Service by failing to prevent a horrifying attempt on President Trump’s life,” Blackburn said in a statement. “Not only did she oversee one of the greatest security failures in our nation’s history, but she also stonewalled congressional oversight and ran away from my colleagues and me when we confronted her. Under no circumstances should she be allowed to regain her security clearance, and it is shameful she would even try.”
Cheatle resigned 10 days after the shooting amid mounting pressure from Republicans.
In a letter to the agency at the time, she wrote, “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.”
She took responsibility: “As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse.”
On the first anniversary of the assassination attempt, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, accused Cheatle of lying during her congressional testimony by denying that she refused requests for additional resources for Trump’s security.
Cheatle pushed back on the allegations through a statement from her attorney: “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.”
