Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday.
Ms. Cheatle, who had served as Secret Service director since August 2022, had been facing growing calls to resign as well as a number of investigations into the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
Col. Christopher Paris, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, testified on Tuesday before a House panel on the recent attempt on the former president’s life. Follow here for the live updates:
Bipartisan Calls for Senate to Confirm Next Secret Service Director
After Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on July 23, two senators—a Republican and a Democrat—called for her successor to be subject to a Senate confirmation vote.
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) introduced legislation that would require all future Secret Service directors to be confirmed by the Senate. The Providing Real Oversight and Transparency to Effectively Counter Threats (PROTECT) Act would also limit those confirmed to a single, 10-year term.
Shooter Should Have Been ‘Intercepted’: Police Commissioner
The man who fired shots at former President Trump should have been intercepted earlier by law enforcement after they saw he had a rangefinder with him, Pennsylvania Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris told lawmakers.
Pennsylvania State Police personnel alerted Secret Service agents at 5:51 p.m. on July 13 to a man with a rangefinder. During Tuesday’s hearing, Mr. Paris was asked what should have happened next.
“I would say Mr. Crooks could have been encountered and intercepted. That would have been the ideal,” Col. Paris said.
The national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Patrick Yoes, said the Secret Service should also have considered preventing former President Trump from going on stage.
Kimberly Cheatle, the outgoing director of the Secret Service, told lawmakers on Monday that agents let the former president take the stage because the shooter was identified as suspicious, but not a threat.
Trump Shooter’s Motive Unclear Days Later; Father Has ‘No Comment’
Ten days after the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, officials still have not found a motive. Meanwhile, other details about the shooter, who was killed that day by a Secret Service sniper, remain unclear.
The shooter’s father, Matthew Brian Crooks, 53, was spotted leaving a store on Monday, and told Fox News that he won’t be releasing a statement on the shooting for the time being.
“We just want to try to take care of ourselves right now. Please, just give us our space,” Mr. Crooks told the Fox News reporter in a videotaped encounter in Bethel Park. “We’re going to release a statement when our legal counsel advises us to do so—until then, we have no comment.”
‘Seconds’ Between Officer Seeing Crooks and Shots Being Fired
Just seconds elapsed between the time a local police officer spotted Thomas Crooks on the roof of a building near a rally being held by former President Donald Trump and shots being fired by Mr. Crooks, Pennsylvania’s police commissioner said on July 23.
“It was a matter of seconds,” Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris said.
Earlier in the hearing, Mr. Paris had said it was no more than three minutes. After a recess, he offered clarification on the time period.
The local officer and a partner had heard about a suspicious person’s presence around the building, and were looking for the person. They eventually found out the man was on the roof. One officer hoisted the other up. The officer being hoisted gripping the ledge, spotting Mr. Crooks. The shooter turned his weapon and aimed it at the officer, prompting the officer to release his grip and drop to the ground, according to Col. Paris.
The officer “was not in a position … to draw a weapon,” he said.
Trump Shooter Had Detonation Device on Him: Police Official
The man who shot former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on July 13 had a detonation device with him, the state’s top police official said on July 23.
“We were aware of that very early on and that was a serious tactical consideration in the immediate aftermath as we worked that crime scene,” Col. Christopher Paris, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, told a U.S. House of Representatives hearing in Washington.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) had asked Col. Paris for confirmation that Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old shooter, had a detonation device and bombs in his car, which was parked near the rally.
“Seems to me, a good theory would be that he was going to kill the president and then detonate his car, causing a diversion, and then escape from the crime scene,” Mr. McCaul said.
After Mr. Crooks fired shots at former President Trump, he was killed by a Secret Service sniper, according to officials.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who announced her resignation earlier on Tuesday, told lawmakers this week that she would not say how many casings were recovered from around the shooter.
Col. Paris told the hearing that he believed eight casings were recovered.
Mr. Crooks climbed on top of a building near the Butler County rally and fired from the roof, authorities say. Former President Trump and two others were wounded, while a fourth individual was killed.
Commissioner Says Local Officers Left AGR Building to Search for Shooter
Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris revealed that officers from the Butler Emergency Services Unit (ESU) left their post inside the AGR building—where the gunman later perched—before the shooting.
Col. Paris told Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) that he believed the ESU officers were looking out a window on the second floor of the AGR building when they spotted 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, the suspected shooter, outside on the ground. When Mr. Crooks disappeared from view, the ESU officers joined with other municipal officers to search for him.
“That’s based on interviews that we’ve conducted,” Col. Paris said.
Video footage from committee members’ tour of the site shows that the window in question overlooked the roof that Mr. Crooks later scaled before firing several shots at former President Donald Trump.
As committee staff displayed the footage, Mr. Bishop asked the commissioner if the ESU officers would have had “a clean shot” at the shooter if they had maintained their position.
Col. Paris replied: “I’m not prepared to say that because I don’t know the exact timeline of events.”
Buildings Nearby Should Have Been Within Perimeter: Expert
The building from which the shooter fired at former President Donald Trump and other nearby structures should have been inside the security perimeter, according to testimony from Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police.
“I look at an assessment of the situation and look at all of the elevated positions that were in place, they should have been part of a contained area,” he said.
Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.), after noting that he does not have law enforcement expertise, said he believes the security perimeter should have been broader.
“There’s no way that that building where the shooter sat, laid, and aimed, should not have had snipers on top of it as well, negating any opportunity for a shooter to be there,” he said.
Police Commissioner: 8 Shell Casings Found at Trump Shooting Site
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) asked the Pennsylvania State Police commissioner how many rounds the gunman had fired before he was killed by a Secret Service sharpshooter.
Col. Christopher Paris said he believed eight shell casings were recovered from the scene.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle declined to answer the same question before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on July 22. Ms. Cheatle resigned on July 23.
Pennsylvania Police Not Given Operations Plan
The Pennsylvania State Police has requested the Secret Service’s operations plan for the July 13 rally, but has yet to receive it, Col. Christopher Paris told lawmakers.
The Pennsylvania police commissioner said that Pennsylvania police can typically offer K-9 sweeps for events, but that it did not provide one for the rally.
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said it’s his understanding that no sweep occurred.
Pennsylvania Governor: Cheatle’s Resignation Was ‘Right Thing to Do’
Asked about Ms. Cheatle’s resignation Tuesday at an unrelated news conference in Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro said it was the “right thing to do.”
“What happened in Butler was an absolute failure and there needs to be answers as to what went wrong. And I think her resignation is an important step in that process,” Mr. Shapiro said.
Secret Service’s Deputy Director Appointed Acting Director
Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe has been appointed acting director of the agency, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
Mr. Rowe is a 24-year veteran of the Secret Service and has served as deputy director since April 2023.
“I appreciate his willingness to lead the Secret Service at this incredibly challenging moment, as the agency works to get to the bottom of exactly what happened on July 13 and cooperate with ongoing investigations and Congressional oversight,” Mr. Mayorkas said in a statement Tuesday.
Mr. Mayorkas said he has the “utmost confidence in Deputy Director Rowe and the men and women of the Secret Service, who put their lives on the line every day and deserve our full support.”
Biden to Appoint New Secret Service Director
President Joe Biden said he’s grateful for Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle’s decades of public service, and that he will soon appoint a new leader for the agency.
In a statement shortly after Ms. Cheatle announced her resignation over the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, President Biden said Ms. Cheatle “selflessly dedicated and risked her life to protect our nation,” and said he wished her “all the best.”
“The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13 continues, and I look forward to assessing its conclusions,” President Biden said. “We all know what happened that day can never happen again.”
House Speaker Calls Cheatle’s Resignation ‘Overdue’
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Ms. Cheatle’s resignation was “overdue,” and that it should have happened at least a week earlier.
News of Ms. Cheatle’s resignation came in just as Mr. Johnson and Republican leaders were wrapping up their weekly press conference on Tuesday morning.
“I’m happy to see that,” Mr. Johnson said. “I’m happy to see she has heeded the call of both Republicans and Democrats. Now we have to pick up the pieces. We have to rebuild the American people’s faith and trust in the Secret Service as an agency.”
Earlier Tuesday, Mr. Johnson and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) announced the formation of a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump and the security failures that led up to it.
Secret Service Director Resigns
Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the U.S. Secret Service, has resigned.
“I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she said in an email to Secret Service staff on July 23. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”
Ms. Cheatle, who was sworn in as director in 2022, had previously rebuffed calls to resign in the wake of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
The former president was struck in the ear during a Pennsylvania rally on July 13 by a bullet fired from a nearby rooftop. Secret Service agents were not on the roof because it was sloped, Ms. Cheatle has said.
Lawmakers from both parties told Ms. Cheatle during a contentious hearing on Monday that she should step down.
“If you have an assassination attempt on a president, or a candidate, you need to resign,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said.
Ms. Cheatle said she wanted to remain as director to ensure accountability, but rankled lawmakers by repeatedly refusing to discuss specifics of what went wrong during the rally, and by refusing to commit to firing any personnel once the agency’s internal probe wraps up.
Police Commissioner Confirms State Police’s Role at Trump Rally
The Pennsylvania State Police provided the U.S. Secret Service with all requested resources for the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally at which former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated, the commissioner told the House Homeland Security Committee on July 23.
According to the written and in-person testimony of Col. Christopher Paris, 32 state police officers were assigned to help secure the July 13 event. Those officers provided escorts for the former president’s motorcade, manned posts surrounding the perimeter, performed roving patrols of the area, and managed the primary Secret Service command post.
Col. Paris added that state police are now conducting a criminal investigation in coordination with the FBI to identify all those responsible for the shooting. Officers are also investigating the Secret Service sniper who killed the would-be assassin.
House Forms Task Force to Probe Attempted Trump Assassination
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) announced the formation of a House Task Force on July 23 to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
The announcement follows the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which the former president and 2024 Republican nominee was shot in the ear. One rallygoer was killed and another two were injured in the shooting.
“The security failures that allowed an assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life are shocking,” Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jeffries said in a joint statement.
“In response to bipartisan demands for answers, we are announcing a House Task Force made up of seven Republicans and six Democrats to thoroughly investigate the matter. The task force will be empowered with subpoena authority and will move quickly to find the facts, ensure accountability, and make certain such failures never happen again.”
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Epoch Times reporters Zachary Stieber, Samantha Flom, Jack Phillips, and Chase Smith, Reuters, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.