WASHINGTON — U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has stepped down after widespread calls from lawmakers for her to resign following the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on July 13, three sources told NBC News.
An official announcement on her resignation is expected later this morning, two law enforcement sources said.
Cheatle’s resignation comes a day after she faced questions from angry lawmakers from both parties who were exasperated over the Secret Service’s failure to protect Trump.
Her responses didn’t satisfy the leaders of the House Oversight Committee, which held the hearing Monday.
“Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures,” Chairman James Comer R-Ky., and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., wrote in a joint letter to Cheatle hours after the hearing ended.
The two members said that the committee and American people “demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing,” especially during a presidential election year.
“We call on you to resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people,” they wrote.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and several other top Republicans, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., had called on Cheatle to resign.
“She needs to go,” Barrasso, told NBC News’ Hallie Jackson after a Senate briefing on the shooting last week.