The Secret Service abruptly halted the security clearance renewal for former Director Kimberly Cheatle.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran reversed course and decided against renewing Cheatle’s top-level security clearance after RealClearPolitics brought up Senator Ron Johnson’s opposition to the agency.
RealClearPolitics reported:
The Secret Service was moving forward with renewing former Director Kimberly Cheatle’s top-level security clearance but reversed course after RealClearPolitics inquired about a key senator’s opposition, according to multiple sources in the Secret Service community.
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and previously chaired the full Homeland Security panel, argued that Cheatle should not have her security clearance renewed after her leadership decisions contributed to the agency’s numerous failures surrounding the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“Following the security debacle in Butler, the former director of USSS made the right decision to resign,” Johnson told RCP. “I see no reason for her security clearance to be reinstated.”
Asked for comment on Johnson’s opposition, the Secret Service issued a vague statement saying Secret Service Director Sean Curran, a Trump appointee, had decided that “not all former directors” should have their security clearances renewed.
As TGP reported last month, a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that the Secret Service during Biden’s presidency did not alert the team responsible for securing Trump’s July 13, 2024, rally.
This is the full clip.
1- shots on trump
2- ss returns fire
3- you hear “shooter is down”
4- they stand trump up
5- he asks to get his shoes
6- fist pumps and fightTruly unreal.
— tyler hogge (@thogge) July 13, 2024
The report revealed the Secret Service, under then-Director Kimberly Cheatle’s leadership, knew of a threat against President Trump’s life 10 days before the attempted assassination at the Butler rally; however, they did not relay the information to the USSS team on the ground in Pennsylvania.
The threat against President Trump was not specific to the Butler rally or the gunman, Thomas Crooks.
Per the report:
Prior to the July 13 rally, senior-level Secret Service officials became aware of a threat to then-former President Trump. This information was not specific to the July 13 rally or gunman. Nonetheless, due to the Secret Service’s siloed practice for sharing classified threat information, Secret Service and local law enforcement personnel central to developing site security plans for the rally were unaware of the threat. According to Secret Service officials, this information was not more broadly shared across the Secret Service because in part, the information was highly classified, and the Intelligence Community did not include information at a lower classification level to share. However, the Secret Service’s siloed information sharing practices, such as requesting that only personnel within an individual’s chain of command be briefed on threat information, contributed to members of the advance team not receiving relevant information. Making changes to Secret Service policies to require it to proactively share threat information internally could help ensure its agents and partners will have information needed to provide effective protection
Further, sharing threat and risk information could also help ensure resource decisions are based on identified risks. Secret Service’s resource allocation process is not currently set up to comprehensively consider all known risks. Implementing a process that does so can help ensure security asset decisionsare based on need and not ad hoc actions outside of a formal process.
Per Fox, other key findings from the GAO report include:
- Ten days before the event, high-level Secret Service officials were briefed on a classified threat to Trump. “Once those officials reviewed the intelligence, they could have then requested that personnel within their chain of command be briefed on the specific information.” Officials failed to share this information, leaving federal and local law enforcement entities planning and staffing the event unaware of the active threat, including members of the Donald Trump Protective Division. Local law enforcement officials told the GAO they would have requested additional assets for the Butler rally, had they known.
- The Secret Service agent who was responsible for “identif[ying] site vulnerabilities,” was new to her role. The Butler event was “her first time planning and securing a large outdoor event as the site agent.”
- At the time of the Butler event, the Secret Service lacked a formal policy for communicating a protectee staff’s requests for changes to security plans. A Trump campaign staffer had asked the Secret Service advance team, who was unaware of the active threat to Trump, not to use large farm equipment to address line-of-sight concerns near one of the buildings so as not to interfere with campaign press photos. The advance team complied, a decision which may have given Crooks a clearer shot at the stage from his rooftop perch.
- Secret Service officials denied the Donald Trump Protective Division’s request for enhanced counter Unmanned Aerial Surveillance (cUAS) equipment at the Butler event, as “these resources had already been allocated for the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.” Fortunately, senior officials with knowledge of the threat against Trump stepped in to approve counter sniper assets for the rally, a decision which was described as “inconsistent” with agency practices for making resource decisions.” Absent this last-minute decision, Trump “would likely not have received the counter sniper assets that ultimately took out [Crooks],” the GAO wrote.
NEW GAO REPORT IM RELEASING says Secret Service knew of a threat 2Pres Trump’s life 10 DAYS b4 Butler but didnt share info w staff on the ground so they were unprepared Rpt identifies Sct Service problems+ recommends fixes This info NVR wld hv been made public w/o CONG OVERSIGHT pic.twitter.com/hf9t87453a
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 12, 2025
Kimberly Cheatle responded to the GAO report, highlighting the Secret Service failures under her leadership.
Cheatle shifted the blame and called July 13 a “perfect storm of events.”
She also denied that she provided misleading testimony to Congress.
JUST IN: Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle responds to Sen. Grassley’s report on Trump shooting 1 year ago: pic.twitter.com/Z7vByJ2nET
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) July 13, 2025
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