The Secret Service stopped the renewal of former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s security clearance, a year after she resigned in July 2024 after facing criticism from lawmakers regarding the agency failing to prevent an attempted assassination on former President Donald Trump.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran, serving under the Trump administration, reportedly decided that “not all former directors” should be able to have their security clearances renewed, the agency told RealClearPolitics (RCP) in a statement.
The decision to not renew Cheatle’s security clearance comes as Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) has “argued that Cheatle should not have her security clearance renewed,” in the aftermath of the agency’s failures on July 13, 2024 during Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire.
Johnson told the outlet that he saw “no reason for her security clearance to be instated.”
“Following the security debacle in Butler, the former director of USSS made the right decision to resign,” Johnson said.
As Breitbart News previously reported, Cheatle resigned “a day after a bruising congressional hearing where she was unable or unwilling to answer many key questions.”
“I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she wrote in an email to staff obtained by the Associated Press. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”
Cheatle previously admitted in an interview with ABC News after the assassination attempt on Trump that agents had not been put on the roof that Crooks had been on, due to the “safety factor” of having agents on a “sloped roof.”
Per RCP, a Secret Service spokesman explained to the outlet that the purpose of renewing the security clearance for former directors is “so the agency can maintain formal and protected communication.” The spokesman added that while Curran “has been building a dynamic team of knowledgeable advisors” and “modernizing the intelligence apparatus within the agency,” he had also “determined that not all former directors need to have their clearances renewed.”
The U.S. Secret Service, along with several top U.S. intelligence agencies including the CIA and FBI, has regularly updated the security clearances for all former directors. Although this practice is a matter of public debate, a Secret Service spokesman told RCP the purpose of the renewals “was so the agency can 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 spokesman said. “Additionally, Director Curran has been modernizing the intelligence apparatus within the agency. During that process, he has determined that not all former directors need to have their clearances renewed.”
The New York Post reported that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has accused Cheatle of having lied to Congress when she “denied accusations she turned down requests for more resources” for the then 2024 Republican presidential candidate Trump’s Butler rally.
