Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle will not have her top-level security clearance renewed, the agency announced. Cheatle resigned last year amidst growing scrutiny over security lapses that resulted in an assassination attempt against then-candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump survived the assassination attempt during the July 13, 2024, rally, sustaining an injury to his ear after being grazed by a bullet. Audience member Corey Comperatore was killed, and two others in the crowd were wounded. A Secret Service sniper shot and killed the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who had climbed to the top of a nearby building.
The Secret Service, along with several top U.S. intelligence agencies such as the CIA and FBI, routinely update security clearances for former directors. However, the Secret Service indicated that not all former directors will have their clearances renewed under current Director Sean Curran.
“The U.S. Secret Service sponsors security clearances for all former directors for their operational and national security knowledge,” a Secret Service spokesperson explained in a statement. “Director Curran has been assembling a team of advisors to implement his vision for the agency and modernize the intelligence apparatus. As part of this process, he has decided not to renew the clearances of all former directors.”
Some Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Ron Johnson, voiced opposition to renewing Cheatle’s security clearance. Johnson, who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, argued that Cheatle’s leadership decisions contributed to the agency’s failures surrounding the assassination attempt against Trump.
In response to these concerns, Cheatle resigned as director ten days after the shooting in Butler. In her resignation letter, she took full responsibility for the security lapse, acknowledging that the agency fell short of its mission to protect the nation’s leaders and financial infrastructure.
On the first anniversary of the assassination attempt, Sen. Rand Paul accused Cheatle of lying in her congressional testimony when she denied turning down requests for more resources for Trump’s security. Cheatle refuted Paul’s allegations, stating that any implication of misleading testimony was false and unfair to the frontline personnel unfairly disciplined for a collective failure.
